


Basics of reuniting with old friends.

by Morganatique9



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angsty Schmoop, Comedy, Denial of Feelings, Drinking Games, F/M, Friendship, Games, I think that's pretty much it, Mention of sex, Party, Post-Finale, Post-Season/Series 06, Reunion weekend, Romantic Comedy, Some Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:27:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 36,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26406481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morganatique9/pseuds/Morganatique9
Summary: 5 years after he left Greendale to sail around the world in the Childish Tycoon, Troy comes back. He plans a reunion with his dear Greendale study group but things don’t really go as planned…
Relationships: Annie Edison/Jeff Winger
Comments: 20
Kudos: 65





	1. The e-mail.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone!!
> 
> So this here isn't something I've written recently. It's actually my very first Community fic, that I wrote back in April after I finished binge-watching the show. I was so emotional and sad about how things ended between Jeff and Annie that I decided to write this in order to soothe my little heart. Then I never published it because at the time, I was insecure about my English and my writing skills... But while sorting through my files, I stumbled upon it again and I thought "what the hell", I wrote the whole thing, might as well publish it now!!
> 
> I hope you'll like it, I'm just gonna go and post the whole thing at once haha it'll be a long read, each chapter is between 5k and 6k (I was very inspired back when I finished watching Community!)
> 
> Just like all of my Community fics, the main ship will be Jeff/Annie, obviously. It sets a few years after the series finale and I allowed myself to let my creativity run as to what have the characters become, professionally and personally. It will mainly be from Jeff's POV, with some moments from Annie's POV.
> 
> Alright, let's go then, I really hope you'll like it!! It was my very first Community fic so it is dear to me haha. Enjoy, don't hesitate to give some feedback if you appreciate it!

Another day. Another “wake up before you get late, dumbass!” alarm at 6.30 A.M. _Gosh, I should really change that alarm sometime…_ Another dull breakfast. Another car ride in the early morning traffic. Another day of improvising class and pretending to know everything about the subject taught when, in fact, well… It’s mostly improvised. Another dull coffee break with other teachers. Another car ride to go home and, of course, in a crazy traffic. Another glass of Scotch sipped in front of some silly reality show. Another dull dinner. Another endless shower to get lost in thoughts. Another bedtime. And repeat. Again. And again.

Jeff Winger’s realization that his life routine had become incredibly “routiny” these past months was the reason he decided he needed an upgrade in his life. He was now a single man of forty-five years old, still teaching Fundamental Law, or whatever that shit was called today, at Greendale Community College, and he was deeply unsatisfied with his current life situation. Sure, he had a nice apartment, nice things and a nice monthly salary. But as a friend once told him, material objects are not what makes someone happy. They sure are pleasant. But they aren’t enough.

If he was truly honest with himself, things started to crumble apart in 2015. It was the year the infamous Greendale study group drifted away. It had already begun when Pierce died back in 2014, leaving his Hawthorne Wipes shares worth over 14 million dollars to Troy, at the sole condition that the latter would sail around the world on Pierce’s boat, the Childish Tycoon. And that was it. First, no more Pierce, then, no more Troy. And the rest eventually followed. No more Abed, no more Shirley and… no more Annie.

After six dedicated years of studying at Greendale Community College, Abed had finally gotten his type of dream job and moved to California to work on a television show. Shirley had already left Greendale and moved to Georgia to help her ill father. From the moment they left, Britta was effortlessly trying to get a PhD in psychology while still taking care of Shirley’s Sandwiches and working as a bartender to make some money. Shirley’s business held it together for a couple of years before the absence of its creators eventually rushed its downfall. After that, Britta’s boss at the bar retired and let her take the reins, making her the new owner and manager.

And as for Annie… At the end of the 2015 school year, she had gotten the opportunity of a lifetime: an internship with the F.B.I., allowing her to pursue her forensics passion. She left Greendale shortly after she got the news to go to Washington. Her internship lasted the whole summer, and then, she moved to New-York to find a job there. She applied in a federal agency and got the job almost right away. She’s been working there ever since and got herself a tiny cute apartment in the Bronx. She was sometimes complaining about the rent on the group chat but, as Britta loved to remind her, since she had “already lived in New-York”, it was one of the cheapest boroughs in the city, so it was “either stop complaining or go home”. Annie never bounced back on that and probably chose to ignore it.

Seeing everyone move away and go on with their lives had been a tough one for Jeff. He was the oldest of the group, and yet, he was the townie one. Jeff never travelled much outside of state and always came back to his roots. There was a time when it didn’t bother him. But having one goodbye party after another had made him more insecure than ever. And of course, Annie’s moving to Washington and then New-York was definitely the icing on the cake.

After years of unresolved sexual tension and shameful feelings towards each other, their lives officially went down different paths. Jeff had always preferred to ignore what he felt about Annie because of the age difference. He didn’t want people to think he was a creep. That’s how it started. Eventually, the young woman started to grow on him. In the end, he had developed some feelings for her. But she was so young and needed to live her life to its fullest, and she couldn’t have done that with him, which is why he let her go half-heartedly when she told the group she got the internship. He tried to move on with his life after he dropped her at the airport but he never really stopped thinking about her. He has known a few women since then, but he would be lying if he said any of them was half as amazing as Annie Edison.

Jeff let out a sigh and looked at his watch. Reliving old good memories of the Greendale study group wouldn’t help him get to work on time. He got out of the shower in a quick slide and got dressed just as quickly before grabbing his briefcase and car keys and preparing to go outside. He was about to open the door when he realized his phone wasn’t in his pocket. He huffed and turned back to grab it. He accidentally tapped on the screen while putting it in his pocket and saw he had a new unread e-mail. Intrigued by that, he paused for a minute and opened the notification to see who could email him this early in the morning. Maybe it was the Dean Pelton who informed the mailing list of the school that Greendale had accidentally caught fire overnight and was now just a pile of ashes? _A man can dream…_ Jeff thought while opening his email app. What he read left him as puzzled as one can get when receiving odd news.

_______

**“DEAR STUDY GROUP SLASH FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS SLASH COOLEST PEOPLE ON EARTH (ESPECIALLY YOU, ABED)**

**ATTENTION. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. I REPEAT. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.**

**YOUR DEVOTED T-BONE AKA BUTT SOUP AKA TROY BARNES IS FINALLY COMING HOME.**

**I DID IT, GUYS. I SAILED AROUND THE WORLD ON PIERCE’S SHIP WITH MY BOY LEVAR BURTON. WE HAD QUITE THE BUMPY RIDE BUT IT WAS A-WE-SOME. AND NOW, I INHERITED PIERCE’S COMPANY SHARES, IN OTHER WORDS, I’M FREAKIN RICH GUYS!**

**I’LL TELL YOU ALL ABOUT THAT AT OUR WEEK-END REUNION NEXT MONTH IN MY DOPE NEW MANSION IN SAN DIEGO (THAT’S RIGHT, IN CALIFORNIA SUCKERS!) OH, AND YEAH, THIS E-MAIL IS A FORMAL INVITATION TO A WEEK-END REUNION NEXT MONTH IN SAN DIEGO.**

**YOU HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO COME OF COURSE, IF YOU NEED HELP BUYING PLANE TICKETS OR STUFF, PLEASE REACH OUT TO ME, I CAN HELP YOU OUT (WOW THIS IS A WEIRD THING TO SAY)**

**CALL ME AT THE FOLLOWING NUMBER FOR FURTHER DETAILS AND I LITERALLY CANNOT WAIT TO SEE YOU AGAIN, I’VE MISSED YOU GUYS SO MUCH AND I’M EXCITED TO HEAR ABOUT WHAT YOU’VE BEEN UP TO THESE PAST 5 YEARS!!**

**(ABED, FACETIME ME ASAP SO WE CAN DISCUSS WHAT ACTIVITIES WE CAN PLAN FOR THAT WEEKEND WITH THE GROUP)**

**SEE YOU GUYS VERY SOON AND PREPARE TO PAAAARTYYYYY!**

**TROY B.**

**P.S.: SORRY FOR THE FULL-ON CAPS LOCK, I THINK IT’S TIME I CHANGE MY PHONE, IT WON’T LET ME SPELL OTHERWISE”**

**___________**

When she finished reading Troy’s email, Annie Edison squealed so loudly her colleagues interrupted what they were doing to glance at her. She apologized quickly and re-read the email, her eyes sparkling with excitement. Troy was finally coming back to the mothership! – no pun intended –. She was so excited to be reunited with her former roommate, whom she hasn’t seen in such a long time it would take hours, nay, days to catch him up to speed on what has been going on in her life. But mostly, she was excited to be reunited with the former study group.

Her usual nosiness made her look at the carbon copy names to see who Troy sent the email to, in addition to herself. Of course, there was Abed, and also Britta, Shirley, Chang, the Dean Pelton – really? Troy invited the Dean to their reunion? How odd… – and Jeff.

Annie’s heart skipped a beat when she read Jeff’s name. Though they were both on the group chat on WhatsApp, they hadn’t had any sort of interactions for almost three years now. To be honest, the group chat was maintained mostly by Abed, who occasionally sent memes and GIFs about some movies or TV shows, and also by Britta, to whom it was important to be updated on her friends’ lives and how they were doing. Annie rarely participated, only to respond the laughing emoji to Abed’s memes or to let Britta know she was doing perfectly fine at the time being. She had noticed Jeff was doing the same thing, and as for Chang, Frankie or Elroy, they were so quiet she would often forget they were also part of the group chat. It sure felt like Greendale was from a much, much different time…

She wasn’t sure how she felt about seeing the group again. The last time they all saw each other was at the first – and last to the day – study group reunion planned by Britta in July 2016. Britta missed the group so much at the time and was so nostalgic she had taken the initiative to send out invites to plan a “party reunion”. Annie had flown back from New-York over the week-end and had slept over at Britta’s new place, who had moved out of the apartment she was sharing with Annie and Abed before they both left the city. It was a two-room apartment so Annie had had to sleep on the couch but she was so happy to see her friends again she didn’t mind.

Jeff had offered to host the party, since his apartment was bigger than Britta’s. So there they were again, Jeff, Britta, Annie, Abed – who had flown back from California and had stayed over at Jeff’s –, Frankie, Elroy and Chang. Annie and Britta had been looking forward to this reunion and were all hyped up, before actually being at the party and noticing that they were apparently the only ones excited about it. Jeff had kept looking at his watch since he had planned on meeting his girlfriend of the moment after everyone would leave, Abed had insisted on watching TV to re-watch “Batman v. Superman: The Dawn of Justice”, as it was newly out on DVD, Frankie had only stayed during appetizers and mostly talked to Elroy, and as the latter and Chang were concerned, they had looked simply and deeply bored.

Later that night, when they had gotten back to Britta’s, her and Annie had agreed that the party had been nothing but a huge disappointment. They had both felt like something had changed and nobody cared anymore. That was the last time the group had a reunion and apart from the group chat, their interactions became very rare. Annie got so busy with work overtime she didn’t have time to think about it anymore but reading Troy’s email made everything resurface and, at the same time, filled her chest with a bit of melancholy.

Of course, Troy didn’t know all that, since he wasn’t there to witness it at the time. That’s probably the reason why he planned this reunion with the original study group – minus Pierce, for obvious reasons –. On one hand, Annie was curious to see how things would turn out if they all went to this reunion, now that it’s been over three years they didn’t see each other. But, on the other hand, there was this one person she dreaded seeing again…

At the 2016 reunion, Annie couldn’t lie to herself – the person she wanted to see most was Jeff. The last time they were together, they shared this sweet, sweet kiss after he – sort of – told her how he felt but decided nonetheless to let her go, for her own happiness. These few minutes had played again and again in Annie’s mind for the year that followed. So, naturally, when she came back to Greendale for the reunion, she had lots of expectations and had played a bunch of different scenarios in her head. How her reunion with Jeff would go, if this “will-they-won’t-they” thing of theirs would still be on, how thrilled he would be to see her again… However, the way the evening turned out was nothing like Annie had imagined. Jeff had barely acknowledged her and had spent the entire evening on his phone, texting with his girlfriend. Annie had been so disillusioned that, on her way back to New-York, she had made a promise to herself: _forget about Jeffrey Winger and don’t expect anything from him anymore_. She stuck to that, and she felt so much better ever since. Now, she was afraid all of this good work would have been for nothing if seeing Jeff again made her old feelings resurface.

When she overheard her boss walking in the common area, Annie cleared her throat and stopped daydreaming. Before focusing on her work again, she took her fluffy pink notebook out of her bag to write a note to herself, all in caps lock and underlined three times: **DON’T FORGET TO CALL TROY TONIGHT**!

_____

When Jeff arrived on campus this morning, Craig Pelton was waiting for him at his usual parking spot, looking all feverish. Jeff knew exactly what he would say to him the minute he would step out of his car.

“Hiiiiii Jeffrey!” Craig exclaimed when Jeff got out of his car. “How are we feeling today?”

“Good morning Craig, indeed, how are we feeling today?” Jeff responded, not even bothering to take off his sunglasses out of courtesy.

“Stop doing that lawyering thing of yours with me, it won’t work today.” Craig laughed, following Jeff as he started walking towards the building.

“I know what you’re going to say, Craig.” Jeff sighed, noticing the Dean had a hard time following him and his big steps, without slowing down nonetheless.

“I saw your email address on the carbon copy list.” Craig giggled. “Aren’t you excited we are going to spend an entire week-end together in San Diego?”

“Don’t get your hopes up too fast Craig, I’m not even sure I’m going to this thing.”

“Wh- what??? Come on Jeffrey, will you ever stop being a buzzkill??”

“I’m afraid the answer to that question is: nope.” Jeff said, popping on the ‘p’.

“What else could you possibly have planned a month from now better than reuniting with your precious little study group? I noticed you weren’t going out a lot lately.”

“Ugh, seriously, Craig?? I told you a million times to stop looking at my calendar!”

“I synced it to my phone a while ago, it’s not my fault I don’t know how to delete it…”

“Yeah, right.” Jeff scoffed.

Jeff headed to his office and was almost there when Craig speeded a little to get past him and keep him from entering his office.

“Okay, now you’re really getting on my nerves, I have class in like six minutes.” Jeff growled.

“It’ll only take me two.” Craig asserted, now looking dead serious. “You know, Jeffrey, I’ve noticed you weren’t being your best self lately. You look grumpier than usual, there was a very hot teaching assistant last week on campus that you didn’t even try to hit on, you only take carbs for lunch at the cafeteria… I mean, really, there’s obviously something going on in that little head of yours and that doesn’t look very good, if you ask me.”

“Thanks for your concern but I’m fine.” Jeff grumbled, annoyed that Craig actually saw through him. “You can’t expect me to be all happy and giggly when I’m still teaching at this crappy college in this crappy city.”

“I know you turned forty-five a few weeks ago, I just assumed that –“

“Oh my God, you REALLY need to stop looking at my calendar!!”

“I’m sorry Jeffrey, I’m simply worried about y–“

The rest of Craig’s apology was muffled by the door Jeff slammed in his face. He was now locked in his office, away from Craig’s interrogation. Damn, that man could really see through to him! Of course, turning forty-five years old was rock bottom for Jeff. How could he possibly meet with the study group now that he was a grumpy annoying old man? It didn’t feel right.

Jeff had a hard time focusing at work this day, re-reading Troy’s email over and over again. He was weighing the pros and the cons in his head, barely aware that some of his colleagues were trying to talk to him over lunch break. Eventually, he did what Annie would do in a situation like this and wrote a list.

**PROS**

| 

**CONS**  
  
---|---  
  
\- See everyone again

\- Have fun and relax

\- Finally see Troy again

\- Get out of Greendale for a couple of days

\- See Annie…

| 

\- Fly to San Diego

\- Having a hangover at 45 surely won’t be the same than having one at 30

\- Possible awkward atmosphere between everyone

\- See Annie…  
  
His last point was in both columns. That said a lot about how he felt. But the laws of pros-and-cons stated that the column with the highest number of points would be the one to win. Five pros v. four cons. That should settle the case, Your Honor.

When Jeff got back to his car at the end of the day, he connected his phone via Bluetooth and started driving home. A few minutes later, both the phone and the car rang. He glanced at the screen and saw this old photo of Britta juggling with empty cans of beer he took at a party a few years back. He hit “answer” to the call.

“Hi blondie!” Jeff yelled.

“Hi Jeff, I’ve already told you, you don’t need to scream when your phone is connected to the car, I hear you just as fine! You old dinosaur.” Britta teased.

“It’s nice to talk to you too, Britta.” Jeff scoffed.

“How are you? What is up with Jeff Winger’s awesome life lately?”

“Same old, same old. You?”

“Yeah… Same.”

“Our lives aren’t very exciting, are they?”

“Can’t say they are.” Britta sassed.

“I suppose you’re calling about Troy’s reunion week-end?”

“Wow, you actually are quite the mind reader, Winger.”

“Stop sassing me or I will hang up on you, Perry.”

“Okay, I’ll stop, promise. Anyway, did you write Troy back?”

“Not yet, I saw his email before getting to work this morning.”

“And what are you waiting for? Don’t you dare ghost him!”

“I won’t, jeez! I was planning on writing back tonight.”

“You better. I called him earlier today and he’s genuinely excited about this reunion. He has this whole agenda planned out for the week-end, all sorts of fun things we can do at his mansion – do you know there’s an indoor pool there?? I can’t wait to see how this house looks like, I bet it’s huuuuuge!”

“Calm your tits, gold digger, what’s your point exactly?”

“Duh-doy, my point is, whatever mental torment you've put yourself through today, to decide whether or not you would go to this reunion, drop it right now. You are going, end of discussion.”

“And what makes you think I’ll do that?”

“Are you even listening to me?? Troy is super excited to see us all again, don’t let him down by acting like a classic Winger-drama-queen and not bothering to show up!”

“What is it with you people thinking you know me better than myself??” Jeff ranted, not liking where this discussion was headed.

“Oh come on, I’m sure you’ve pretty much already decided that you won’t come.”

“As a matter of fact, you’re wrong. I haven’t decided yet.”

“That’s you swearing black is white again only to piss me off!”

“Sorry to break it to you but the world doesn’t revolve around you, Britta.”

“Okay, now you’re being childish, I’m the one who’s going to hang up on you if you’re going to act like that.” Britta growled.

“No no, wait!” Jeff cried out.

He heard a heavy silence at the other end of the phone but he knew Britta didn’t hang up because she loved making people reliant on her to help them solve their problems. He let out a huge sigh and clicked his tongue before talking.

“You know exactly why I’m not sure about going to this thing.” Jeff admitted.

“Oh yeah, damn right I do.” Britta retorted. He could very easily picture her smirk at this moment.

“It’s not funny, Britta.”

“I never said it was. By the way, you could’ve at least text back a ‘thank you’ to my ‘happy birthday’ text Winger, turning forty-five is not an excuse for being rude.”

“Ha ha ha, you must be exulting right now.”

“No, I’m not! I know you’re going through a rough patch Jeff, you’ve always been insecure about your age since the day I met you. But wallowing in your misery isn’t going to help you feel better, you know.”

“Stating the obvious there aren’t we, no wonder they won’t give this PhD to you.”

“I’m being serious Jeff, stop avoiding the subject! You’re obviously not fine and you won’t let me help!”

“It’s because I don’t need no help. Thanks for the wonderful talk, Doctor Perry, bye-bye.”

“I also know your age complex isn’t the only problem you have about this reunion.”

Jeff was about to hang up but Britta’s response froze his hand into the air. He had already parked in his garage two minutes ago but had been staying in the car as long as the phone call was on. He was getting ready to get out of the car but now, his whole body was still. Sometimes, he hated that Miss Know-It-All for guessing everything that was going on in his head.

“Do I have your attention now?” Britta asked after a few seconds of silence.

“You are really going to make me say it out loud, aren’t you?”

“Most definitely, yes.”

“Okay.” Jeff mumbled. “The truth is… I’m nervous about seeing _her_ again.”

“Theeeere we go.”

“Don’t gloat too much yet, this is the only time we’ll talk about it and you better keep it to yourself.”

“I won’t tell a soul. Doctor-patient confidentiality.”

“Ugh I can’t believe I’m talking to you about this…”

“You can’t avoid her forever, Jeff. You already did that at our last group reunion and it was rather mean of you to treat her like that. Eventually, you two will need to have a real conversation, like adults, about what is really going on between the two of you.”

“I thought I made that pretty clear four years ago when I told her how I felt. It’s not my fault she went living in New-York after that.”

“That’s not fair Jeff, you can’t blame her for achieving her dreams and moving on with her life! What did you expect? You wanted her to rot in Greendale, waiting for you to finally stop being ashamed of your feelings?”

“Of course not, I would never ask her to do that! Besides, we were both on the same page regarding our relationsh– regarding _us_.”

“Exactly, so why are you nervous about seeing her again? It’s been four years, I’m sure water’s under the bridge now.”

“Because I’ve never stopped thinking about her, Britta.”

Jeff’s bombshell made Britta sigh empathetically. He felt pathetic and idiot for saying that out loud, but after all, it was the utter truth, as frustrating and irritating it was.

“Can I gloat for, like, just two seconds?” Britta finally asked.

“Sure, knock yourself out.” Jeff huffed.

Jeff heard a tapping noise right after that, and again, he pictured with such easiness how Britta had probably put her phone down to perform her little victory dance.

“I… totally… called… it…” Britta was singing, each words separated by clicking noises.

“Are you seriously tap-dancing after I told you I’m miserable about a girl, Britta?”

“Sorry but I've definitely mastered the art of figuring things out with such accuracy.”

“I thought shrinks were supposed to be humble.”

“Well, I’m not technically a shrink so I’m allowed to pat myself on the back.”

“Sure, you do you.” Jeff said ironically.

“Let’s get back to the point, though.” Britta said while picking her phone up again. “You need to see Annie and talk to her about what you just said to me.”

“I can’t do that and you know why.”

“Stop putting it on the age difference, you know for a fact she doesn’t care. She never did.”

“But I do. All your ‘creepy uncle’ jokes are just a sneak-peek of what people would say if we were ever together.”

“So what? Who cares what people think? As long as you two are happy together, you shouldn’t give a crap about what some random idiots might possibly say about you.”

“Either way, that ship has sailed, Britta. Last I’ve heard, Annie had this typical New-Yorker boyfriend and she seemed really happy with him.”

“Don’t judge a book by its cover, Jeff. You can’t trust Instagram’s posts to tell you how people really feel.”

“Well, it’s easier to assume things when people’s caption states ‘best bf eveeeer xxx’.”

“Ugh that’s just smoke and mirrors. I told Annie she shouldn’t post everything about herself on social media. Gee, she works at a federal agency, she should know what we put on the Internet stays there forever and can be used against us! For example, did you know that some companies actually buy e-mail addresses info to –”

“I really don’t want to have this conspiracy theory conversation right now, Britta. Or ever, to be honest.”

“Will you please please come to Troy’s reunion?” Britta begged him. “If that makes you feel any better, we can get on the same plane, so you won’t freak out while you’re flying to San Diego. You know what, say no more, I’m coming over to your place tomorrow afternoon for coffee so we can buy tickets together.”

“I suppose I don’t really have a say in this?”

“You suppose correctly. But it would be better if you decided to come with a light heart, though. Think about it. And don’t forget to call Troy ASAP to tell him how glad you are to see him!”

“Okay Mom, will do.” Jeff mocked.

“Tomorrow at 4 then. I’m bringing homemade cookies. Call Troy! And don’t overthink it.”

On that note, Britta hung up, leaving Jeff alone with his spiraling thoughts. What had just happened? Did Britta actually convince him, in her weird, odd ways, to go to the reunion? And she was baking homemade cookies?

He had to admit he did thought about him being alone in the flight to San Diego and it would actually be reassuring not to fly there by himself. Even if it was with Britta… Man, he sure liked to tease her about her failing psychologist career prospect but he was sometimes surprised with how easily she could read a room and guess things that were unsaid.

Realizing that he hadn’t moved an inch and was still in his car, Jeff finally got out and walked back to his apartment, playing with his car keys between his fingers. He wasn’t able to think about anything else than Annie. In a way, Britta was right, he and Annie needed to have an _actual_ conversation, more mature than the one they had in the study room before she left for Washington. A conversation with no escaping, no fleeing. An honest and adult conversation.

He agreed with that. So why in the hell did he still have the urge to run away and not face it?

______

The minute Annie got back to her apartment and locked her six door locks behind her – old habits –, she collapsed on the couch and grabbed her phone to call her former roommate. He picked up after four bells.

“What’s up, Lil’Annie?” Troy said.

“Heeeey Troy! It’s so nice to hear your voice!” Annie squealed in a high-pitched voice.

“You too! How are you doing?”

“Fantastic, actually! I was so thrilled when I read your e-mail this morning, this reunion weekend is SUCH a good idea!”

“Right?? When I returned the Childish Tycoon and inherited this huuuge mansion in California, it just felt so natural to tell you all guys to come over, you know? Plus, not going to lie, I’ve missed you like hell.”

“We’ve missed you too, so much! Things were so different after you left Greendale.”

“That’s what Abed pretty much said when I talked to him this morning.”

“I bet he FaceTimed you the minute he got the email, right?”

“You know the guy. We talked for, like, an hour and we have soooo many entertaining things planned out for you guys, it’s going to be the most epic weekend ever!”

“Hiiiii, no spoiler, I can’t wait to see it with my own eyes!”

“You won’t be disappointed. Abed’s mastermind is still on point.”

“Of course it is. Are we talking zombie-apocalypse-movie or Dreamatorium kind of fun here?”

“You said no spoiler, I ain’t spoiling a thing.”

“Okay okay, fair enough, I’ll wait. Patiently.”

“So I assume you called to confirm you’ll be here?”

“Duh-doy!”

“Awesome! You’re the best.”

“How could I say no to such an appealing proposal? Anyway– have you heard back from the others yet?”

“Well, Abed’s coming, obviously. Britta called, she said she was in. Shirley just answered my e-mail to decline since it’s her nephew’s wedding week-end or something. And I’m still waiting to hear from the others.”

“Hmm. Interesting.”

“Yeah, to answer your actual question, I still don’t know if _he_ ’s coming.”

Annie couldn’t help but blush after Troy said that. She thought she would be inconspicuous but apparently, she still needed to work on that. That or Troy knew her too well.

“Pff. I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t care.” Annie scoffed.

“I’m going to pretend like that’s true.” Troy said ironically.

“Soooooo, will you text me the details, so I can book my flight as soon as possible?” Annie asked to change the subject.

“I was thinking about creating a group chat with you all, since it’s apparently a thing to do now. All the dets will be there!”

“Great! Study group reunion!”

“I’m so excited, it’s going to be awesome! Anyway, got to go, it was really nice talking to you, take care, see you next month!”

Troy had said that in a rush and didn’t leave Annie the opportunity to answer since he’d already hung up. She stared at her black screen, bewildered, but quickly gathered herself and already started thinking about what clothes she could pack for this upcoming trip. Obviously, San Diego would be hotter than New-York, even at this time of the year, she could thus pack all sorts of clothes she liked. She also needed to go to the mall and buy a gift for Troy, to celebrate his return. She could also buy a gift for everyone, to celebrate their reunion. So many things to prepare, how exciting!

She sunk even more into her couch and started scrolling her Facebook feed. Puppies, funny video, kittens, cheesecake recipe… and a picture of Jeff.

The group always used to tease Jeff for his Facebook preference over Instagram. To him, the latter was “too millennial” so he preferred sticking to Facebook. Annie rarely checked her Facebook feed but coincidentally, this day, she did.

She straightened up and looked at the picture more carefully. He had posted a simple photo of himself, holding a coffee mug that said “Life begins at the end of your comfort zone”. The photo caption said _“A good friend gave this mug to me a few years ago and at first, I thought it was a stupid cheesy quote. But turns out it’s not that stupid after all… Time to make some change around here, and it’ll start with a good ol’ trip to California. San Diego, make room for Jeff Winger’s incoming entrance! (don’t even bother to comment Britta, keep your conspiracy theories to yourself)”_

Annie’s heart started racing so fast she let out a gentle “oh” before getting up and pouring herself a glass of water. She drank it at such a high speed she almost chocked on it. She tried to gather her thoughts and calm herself down. So that was it, she was about to see Jeff in a month and all her good resolutions already began to fade away, like a soft breeze disappearing into thin air.

She was already playing out some scenarios in her head when she realized her front door was now opened and someone was standing in the door frame.

“Hey babe! So, how was your day?” Annie’s boyfriend said before coming in and wrapping his arms around her.


	2. The reunion.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time to fly to San Diego and to reunite with the group.

_ One month later. _

The day had come. _D-Day_ , as it was labelled on his phone calendar. Truthful to his usual self, Jeff had finished packing just two minutes before having to leave and he checked his apartment real quick before grabbing his suitcase and locking the place up. He would only be gone for two days and a half but better be safe than sorry.

As it was agreed upon beforehand, Jeff would be the one driving to the airport with the other Greendale guests to the reunion. He headed to Britta’s first, and would be heading to Craig Pelton’s next – yes, Jeff had moved out a couple of years ago, as being Craig’s neighbor turned out to be quite irritating since Jeff found out Craig was often eavesdropping. And yes, Jeff couldn’t believe he was going on a trip with Craig Pelton… And finally, he would go and get Chang.

When he arrived in Britta’s neighborhood, he parked in front of her building and waited for her, scrolling through his Facebook feed. Two minutes later, he heard a deeply annoying tropical music getting louder and louder. He rose his head to catch a glimpse of Britta coming to his car, tip-toeing while dragging her suitcase behind her, her phone blasting the music.

“Hey, keep it in your pants, we are not going to Hawaii and it’s mid-January here.” Jeff scolded, tipping his head towards Britta as she was opening the trunk to put her suitcase in it.

“Oh come on grandpa, loosen up a bit, relax and have fuuuuun!” Britta sang while sitting in the passenger seat next to Jeff.

“I’m about to spend two hours and a half on a freaking plane so I’m not going to relax.” Jeff mumbled, starting the engine and driving to Craig’s.

“Okay, you better not be moody this weekend, I won’t hesitate Jeff, if you’re killing the mood, I will lock you up in your room like the spoiled kid you are.”

“Try me, Perry.” Jeff scoffed.

Britta stuck out her tongue to provoke him and then settled in her seat, looking for something to eat in her bag.

“I can’t believe the Dean actually said ‘yes’ to this invite. I hope him being there won’t set a weird mood.” Britta said.

“It should be okay, I told him that he better behave, otherwise I’d quit.”

“Blackmailing isn’t the way to get things done, Jeff!”

“Are you kidding me? That’s basically what you did to me so that I would come to this reunion.”

“I didn’t technically blackmail you, I urged you to consider your friends’ feelings and act like an adult, that’s different.”

“If that’s how you want to call it, sure.” Jeff scoffed.

Silence settled between Jeff and Britta as they pulled over Craig’s resort. While waiting for him, Jeff could feel that Britta was dying to ask him something.

“Go ahead, shoot.” Jeff said in a flat voice.

“What?” Britta asked, chewing on a piece of gum.

“You’re obviously dying to ask me something, so do it.”

“What makes you say that??”

“You reek of curiosity. Come on, ask me.”

“Ugh, was it that obvious? I was just wondering how you felt about seeing Annie.”

“I feel nothing. I’m just going to an old friends’ reunion, where we are going to talk, drink a lot of alcohol, reenact Abed’s weird movie scenarios and go back to our life afterwards without seeing each other again for the next ten years.”

“Wow, it’s crazy, sometimes, when I talk to you, I feel like I’ve met the human version of doom and gloom.”

“Stop, you’re flattering me.”

“You cannot feel nothing, you must be either anxious or excited to see her.”

“You’re right, I do feel something. I feel… oblivious.”

“Gosh, it’s impossible to have a serious discussion with you, you’re the worst!”

“Well, buckle up kiddo, we are going to spend an entire weekend together.”

“I swear, if we play a live game of Cluedo at this mansion and it’s not the Dean who ends up being murdered, it’ll definitely be you, Winger.”

“Why are we getting murdered up here?”

Craig’s voice made Jeff chuckle and Britta hushed immediately when she saw him in the rearview mirror, putting his suitcase in the trunk.

“We are getting murdered… up of fun in here!” Britta invented, making Jeff chuckle even harder.

“Nice catch.” Jeff teased while she punched him in the shoulder.

“I guess I’ll go with that.” Craig said as he was sitting in the backseat.

Jeff immediately started driving again and headed to Chang’s neighborhood. When he parked, Chang was already waiting for them, dressed up in a ridiculous torero costume and screaming “Wassup bitcheeeeees”. Jeff sighed while letting him get into his car and this time, they were finally headed to the airport. He was trying to ignore Britta’s jibber-jabber and Craig’s high-pitched “road triiiiip” repeated catchphrase to let his thoughts wander. Obviously, he wasn’t feeling oblivious at all. Quite the opposite, actually. He was so nervous about seeing Annie again he had barely slept last night. It’s probably the dark circles under his eyes that gave him away. And right now, he had a weird buzz in his stomach.

The last time he saw her, he had a girlfriend. It didn’t mean he didn’t care about Annie, but at least, he had someone else to keep his mind busy. He wasn’t too proud of it, especially since Britta liked guilt-tripping him about it from time to time, but he had put his foot down and decided it would be best to avoid Annie and private discussions with her at the last reunion. It had worked. It hadn’t been easy, especially when he had caught her staring at him multiple times with her irresistible doe eyes, but he had hung in there. After she went back to New-York, she didn’t send him private texts anymore. Their only forms of interaction were through the group chat, and even then, they weren’t really interacting with each other since it was to talk to other people. Jeff thought it would be better this way, letting Annie down, so she could move on and live the incredible life she so desperately deserved. Even if it meant he would have to take the bullet and hurt like hell for that.

He got so lost in his own thoughts that he barely noticed they were finally at the airport. He parked the car at the designated car park area, the four of them grabbed their suitcases as fast as they could to make it on time to the check-in and before they could rest, they were finally sitting on the plane, waiting for it to take off. Chang was sitting alone in the row behind them and Jeff was sitting in the middle seat between Craig and Britta, which made Craig indefinitely happy as he could enact one his favorite romantic tropes and lay his head on Jeff’s shoulder while pretending to fall asleep. Britta giggled when she noticed that and Jeff didn’t even mention it. He was used to Craig’s dramatic behavior towards him. By the time the plane was finally launched in the sky, Jeff had fallen asleep from exhaustion.

___

After almost six hours on a plane, Annie had finally arrived in San Diego’s airport. She let out a satisfying sigh as she set foot on the ground and waited for her suitcase at the baggage carousel before heading to the drop-off point, where Troy and Abed were supposedly waiting for her.

She saw them from afar. They looked like they were having a pretty serious conversation, although Annie guessed without putting too much effort into it that they were probably arguing about which character was the best in “The Umbrella Academy”, since Abed made Troy binge the whole season on Netflix a few days ago.

Once they saw her coming their way, they stopped talking and aligned themselves in a formal position to greet her. Their pretend seriousness at this moment made her grin.

“Troy, Abed and Annie are reuniiiiiiteeeeeed!” Troy and Abed fast sang, looking dead serious.

“Aaaaaw, you guys!” Annie exclaimed, tearing up.

She dropped her suitcase and with her arms wide open, she ran to them to give them a hug. They welcomed her by closing their arms onto her for their classic group hug.

“I can’t even express how happy I am to be with you right now! The roomie trio!” Annie said once they parted.

“It’s like old times, sure.” Abed retorted in his usual flat voice. “Like we’re in a movie with a flash-forward in time and at first, we’re all so delighted to see each other again cause it’s been so long and we’ve missed out on each other, but then, as the movie goes by, we discover all sorts of ugly truths about what we’ve all been up to these past years we weren’t together and we end up arguing and then, we’re not so happy about seeing each other again.”

“Oh.” Annie simply said, taken aback.

“Don’t take it personally Annie, Abed’s been rambling about the fact that our reunion isn’t going to go as nicely as we think and that we’re eventually going to end up fighting.” Troy intervened. “Stop jinxing it Abed, I don’t want this reunion to get ruined by some dark scenario!”

“Can’t help it. We’re never completely safe from the Darkest Timeline to take over ours.” Abed added.

“Well, if the Darkest Timeline tries to mess with us, we’ll deal with it the McClane’s way.” Troy asserted.

 _Die Hard’_ s allusion made Abed’s lips move up a bit, and then he looked back at Annie, who seemed sad all of a sudden.

“You look nice, Annie.” Abed finally said, cheering the above-named up a bit. “This haircut looks really good on you, it ages you.”

“Aww, thanks Abed.” Annie exclaimed, instinctually touching her hair. “I was going for that when I went to the hairdresser, I was tired of my coworkers referring to me as ‘tiny little Annie’. I feel more empowered now.”

“You should. You’re giving me major Betty Draper vibes right now, I don’t know if I should be scared or impressed.”

“Um... thanks, I guess?”

“Well, let’s not waste any time, we still have to stop by the supermarket to pick out some of the things we forgot!” Troy suddenly said while grabbing Annie’s suitcase.

“Wow, quite the gentleman Troy, aren’t we now?” Annie teased as she followed him and Abed to the car.

“It’s because you deserve it, milady.” Troy joked, bowing to Annie.

She struggled to swallow when she heard Troy calling her “milady”. It reminded her of someone else and of a different time in her life…

“By the way, how come your boyfriend couldn’t make it?” Troy asked as he was putting Annie’s suitcase in his trunk.

“Oh… huh, he was– he was, um, uncomfortable about tagging along to our reunion, he thought it would be best if I went by myself.” Annie stuttered.

“That’s obviously a lie but we’ll pretend like we believe you so that you don’t feel embarrassed.” Abed said as he sat in the passenger seat.

Annie wasn’t used to Abed’s pickling honesty anymore, so she couldn’t do anything else but widen her eyes at what he just said.

“Abed, what did we just talk about in the car?” Troy huffed.

“You specifically said ‘Remember to avoid pointing out awkward stuff and embarrassing people, especially Annie, she’s probably feeling guilty already about coming alone this weekend and seeing Jeff.’ That was it word for word, right?”

Now, Annie was glowering at Troy, who was himself glaring at Abed.

“What the hell, Troy??” Annie hissed.

“Keep behaving like that and you’ll be the one ending up in the dungeon, Abed.” Troy threatened while sitting in the driver’s seat.

“Sorry, the WHAT now???” Annie exclaimed as she fastened her seat belt and Troy roared off.

____

When Jeff, Britta, Chang and Craig’s flight finally landed in San Diego, it was almost dark outside, even though it wasn’t even 6 P.M. Troy had offered to come get them at the airport but Jeff had insisted on renting a car so that Troy wouldn’t have to do the round trip twice. After all, he had already come to get Annie a few hours ago.

Once they got their suitcases back and Jeff paid the car’s deposit, they fitted their bags into the small trunk, got inside the car and drove to Troy’s place. Jeff asked Britta to be his co-pilot and deal with the GPS device but as it turned out, her sense of direction wasn’t as good as she claimed it was.

“I told you, you should have let me be your wingman, Jeffrey.” Craig gloated from the backseat, listening to Jeff and Britta bicker over who was right on which way to go.

“Shut up, Craig, now is not the time.” Jeff grumbled.

“You know that it’s very sexist to assume that because I’m a woman, I can’t give directions properly, right?” Britta rambled.

“I never said you can’t give directions because you’re a woman, I’m saying you can’t give directions because you’re stupid, Britta!” Jeff snarled.

“So I’m stupid _because_ I’m a woman.” Britta added.

“Stop relating everything to feminism, for Christ’s sake!”

“Will you two stop fighting? I have a massive headache and you’re not helping.” Chang suddenly said.

“Maybe you shouldn’t have knocked your head on your seat’s window all the way from Greendale, then!”

“I kept falling asleep and waking up, it’s not my fault, I have a condition and you know that!!”

The three of them began to ramble some nonsense to each other while Craig sighed and looked out his window. Luckily, they finally managed to find Troy’s house and all of their bickering seized immediately when they acknowledged the place they had landed to, completely stunned.

“What… the… fuck… is… this…” Jeff whispered.

“Jeffrey, you never mentioned Troy was living in Bill Gates’ mansion.” Craig said, dazzled.

“Gates’ mansion is in Del Mar Craig, keep up.” Jeff retorted, hiding the fact he was dazzled himself.

“Anywho, that sure looks like a freaking palace.” Britta said, utterly in awe.

“I thought Troy inherited like fourteen million bucks, how did he manage to buy a house like this? I’m sure only the gate itself costs fourteen million!” Chang exclaimed, apparently excited like a little kid in Disneyland.

“I’m guessing he didn’t only inherit some money.” Jeff shrugged, looking for a place to park the car.

The mansion and the land around it were massive. First off, they had to drive down an endless road after entering the gates, a road surrounded by freshly cut trees. Then, they arrived in a huge square, adorned by a giant fancy fountain spitting tons of water. The gardens around the fountain were all made of grass, freshly cut as well, and behind all that stood the infamous mansion. Big, majestic, surreal.

“To be honest, it kind of looks like a villain’s lair in a superhero movie.” Jeff remarked once he got out of the car.

“It’s so huge we probably all have a floor just to ourselves!” Britta squealed, dancing about.

“So, where are the red carpet and the welcome committee?” Craig asked, half-joking half-serious.

“They probably already started some weird game Abed put in place.” Jeff answered, looking for someone in sight.

“No way, I’m sure they waited for us to start the party.” Britta refuted, grabbing her suitcase and running to the front door.

Suddenly, all the lights went off outside and inside the mansion, as an intriguing music started playing from some speakers hang above the entrance.

“And here we go…” Jeff sighed, waiting to see what was coming to them.

The freaky music went on for thirty more seconds before shutting down completely. A new one started playing right after and Jeff immediately recognized the first notes of the song _Jump Around_ by House of Pain. He couldn’t help but start grinning like an idiot. He had forgotten how extra his friends could be, and most of all, how much he actually missed it.

After the first four notes of the song, when it actually started, Troy, Abed and Annie made their entrance as all the lights went back on, walking out the front door in a synced approach. Chang was laughing so hard he was almost crying, Britta cheered them up as they walked by her and Craig acted like he was at a music concert and started applauding and screaming. Jeff simply made a huge smile and applauded quietly. Once the trio was out of the house and standing in an obviously repeated scenery, the music stopped and they dropped the act to curtsy.

“And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you properly greet you friends!” Troy exclaimed while bowing.

Britta ran towards the trio to hug them out, quickly followed by Craig and Chang. Jeff played hard to get but rapidly gave it up when everyone urged him to join them. So here they all were, having the group hug of their life, giggling and squealing. Jeff crossed eyes with Annie but both of them immediately looked away.

“Okay, I have to admit this reunion moment was much better than any of those I have seen in movies up until now.” Abed said when everyone parted.

“That’s actually one of the sweetest things you’ve ever said to us, Abed.” Britta said while Annie was “aww”ing him.

“But the joy won’t last.” Abed added dreadfully before walking away.

Everyone turned their heads towards Troy, looking disconcerted.

“Don’t mind him, he has this whole classic trope of ‘friends-reunion-eventually-turning-to-a-disaster’ planned out, let’s not upset him by showing him it will be the best-reunion-eveeeer!”

The gang laughed afterwards and those who just arrived picked up their suitcases from the car and went inside the mansion to settle in their rooms for the weekend. Once they passed the front door, the first thing they noticed was that the mansion looked even more stunning from the inside.

“Troy, how in the hell did you manage to buy this house??” Britta asked in awe.

“Oh, I didn’t actually buy it, it was one of Pierce’s real estate property and it was part of the inheritance he left for me.”

“Okay, that makes more sense.” Chang whispered to himself, looking like he was connecting some dots in his mind.

“That also explains the creepy and weird designing.” Jeff remarked, looking at some hideous furniture shaped like what looked like breasts.

“I don’t mind it, you actually get used to it at some point.” Troy shrugged.

“So, can you give us a tour or what?” Britta asked, all hyped up.

“Sure, if you’ll follow me, please!”

Troy started moving, followed by Britta, Chang and Craig. The latter turned on himself to watch Jeff, who didn’t move from where he was standing.

“Aren’t you coming, Jeffrey?” Craig asked.

“Go ahead, I’ll catch up with you guys later.” Jeff answered.

Craig nodded, eyeing Jeff with a suspicious look, but eventually turned around to follow the group nonetheless. Jeff was also curious to see what this mansion was hiding but right now, it wasn’t the most important thing on his mind and he would have plenty of time this weekend to discover the whereabouts of this house. Right now, he only had one thought in mind that he couldn’t get out, one thought that had been stuck in his head for the past five years.

He started walking towards what looked like a giant living-room. He glanced quickly to see if _she_ was here. He saw her leaning against a wall, typing on her phone, which was apparently charging. She didn’t notice him at first, so he walked towards her with muffled steps, hoping he wouldn’t startle her. When Annie finally raised her head from her phone, she gasped a little at the sight of Jeff only a few feet away from her.

“Sorry, I was trying not to startle you.” Jeff apologized, his heart rate suddenly racing.

“It’s okay, I… I didn’t hear you coming.” Annie replied, composing herself.

None of them added anything whatsoever and they just stared at each other in silence. Jeff looked at Annie in details, now that he was up-close and they were in a lighted room. She looked very different from the last time he saw her. She had cut her hair so short they didn’t even touch her shoulders, curling in tiny waves below her ears. Her clothing was different as well, more adult. She had apparently dropped the skirts with little flowers on it and ballerina flats, as she was now wearing a navy-colored jumpsuit with sneakers. But what puzzled Jeff the most was the look in her eyes. Her eyes used to have this tiny sparkle in them, like she was a Disney princess at a Disney parade. Now, the sparkle was still there but it was different. It was more confident, more asserted, more… attractive.

“Are you okay, Jeff?” Annie asked after a few seconds of silence.

Jeff felt embarrassed when he realized he was probably staring at Annie this whole time.

“Yeah, totally.” Jeff shrugged, trying to look chill. “And you, are you okay?”

“Fantastic, yeah.” Annie answered, frowning at him.

“So, how was your flight?” Jeff asked.

“Are you seriously trying to make small talk with me?” Annie scoffed.

“I guess I am… That was lame, sorry.” Jeff laughed.

“Not lame, it’s just… I’m not used to us making small talks, that’s all.”

This fact alone proved that everything had changed between them. It was so easy for them to talk to each other before, and now, it seemed like they didn’t even know what to say anymore.

Annie admired Jeff in silence as he was shoving his hands down his pockets and looking around the room. He obviously decided once and for all to let his beard grow, probably going to the barbershop from time to time to keep it clean. Annie noticed he now had a few grey hair, both in his beard and in his hair, but it wasn’t appalling, perhaps even the opposite: it made him look more attractive than he already was. W _hy am I still so attracted to that man…_ Annie thought to herself.

“My turn to ask if you’re okay, Annie.” Jeff scoffed when he caught her looking at him.

Even though she was an adult with an important job and high responsibilities, she would still blush when someone she liked made her uncomfortable. She felt like a helpless little girl at this moment and hated herself for that. Nevertheless, she tried her best to show the opposite.

“So how was YOUR flight from Greendale?” Annie asked with composure.

“Damn, we really are going down that road, aren’t we?”

“Unless you have something else to talk about than our flights and the weather, I guess we _are_ going down that road.”

“There are so many things I’d like to talk about with you, Annie… But…”

“But what?” Annie asked when she saw Jeff wasn’t carrying on.

Jeff looked desperate at this moment, the thoughts rushing into his head without managing to properly gather them. Annie looked at him with a meaningful look to encourage him to say what was on his mind, waiting in agony.

Suddenly, they heard footsteps coming their way. They both turned their heads towards where the noise was coming from and sighed when they saw Abed walking slowly in their direction, a camera set on his shoulder.

“Abed, what are you doing?” Jeff grumbled.

“I’m making a film about our reunion, of course.” Abed answered, like it was the most natural thing in the world.

“Can it wait? We’re kind of in a middle of something right now.” Jeff said, pointing at Annie and himself.

“Oh no, _au contraire_ , this is perfect. It’s the moment where two former lovers who haven’t seen each other in years exchange their first conversation, shamefully awkward at first, but then, when they’re about to open up to each other, a minor character comes in and interrupts their moment. It’s perfect.”

“Ya think?” Jeff growled.

“Abed, sweetie…” Annie started while walking towards him. “I get that it’s important for you to do this, I know it’s your passion and also your job. But for the time being, for only a couple of days, can you please put the camera away and let us enjoy the moment without being under the eye of the camera for a while? Please please please?”

Jeff was actually surprised Annie said that to Abed, since she usually tiptoed around him in order to avoid hurting him. He looked at the latter to see how he would react, hoping Annie didn't break him by saying those stuff.

“Alright.” Abed yielded, putting the camera down. “If it makes everyone more comfortable, I won’t make a movie about our reunion.”

“Thank you Abed, you’re the best!” Annie said.

“I will have to hire some actors when I’m back in L.A. to play your parts and make this movie anyway, though.” Abed added, starting to walk back.

Annie couldn’t help but laugh. Abed’s quirkiness could be annoying sometimes, but most of the time, it had its funny moments.

“Oh and I also need to remove the cameras I’ve put in all your bedrooms.” Abed said before exiting the room.

“ABED!” Jeff and Annie yelled.

The two of them looked at each other once Abed was out of the room and lightly chuckled.

“This one hasn’t changed a bit.” Jeff said.

“He sure hasn’t.”

“You know what, Annie? You’re right. We should enjoy the moment and live in the present, seize the day.”

“It sounds like that awful speech you gave to that teacher in our first year at Greendale when he said you weren’t able to live in the moment.”

“Yeah, I realized it but the words were already out of my mouth.”

“But you’re right, though. There’s no need to stir up the past, especially this weekend. I think we all came here to have fun, reunite with Troy and forget about our problems.”

“Couldn’t agree more.”

“Perfect, glad we’re on the same page.”

Jeff nodded at Annie, even though he once again had chosen the easy way out and ran away from the problem. Britta would probably give him a hard time for that later on but for the time being, he didn’t care. All he cared about what seeing this adorable smile on Annie’s face that always had the tendency of melting his heart.

“Alright, I think I’m going to go unpack.” Jeff finally said while starting to walk out of the room.

“Sure, I was going to give a call to my boyfriend anyway, we’ll catch up later.”

Hearing those words coming out of Annie’s mouth was tougher than he was expecting but he didn’t show anything about it and simply smiled at her. He walked away, eager to jump in the shower and wash away all the frustrating feelings he was having for her right now.

Once Jeff was out of her sight, Annie let out a huge gasp and slowly rubbed her face. She just did something really, _really_ stupid.

“Why did you just tell Jeff you need to call your boyfriend when you don’t even have a boyfriend anymore?” Abed asked Annie, who hadn’t seen her friend standing in the doorframe and therefore hearing her pathetic lie.


	3. Escape game and heart-talk.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group is doing an escape game. And then, Jeff and Annie have a talk.

Since Jeff didn’t come along with the others for the mansion’s tour and therefore already showered, Troy gave him another tour while the others were unpacking.

“When I met you eleven years ago, I would never have thought you’d end up living in a house like this, Troy.” Jeff admitted.

“Me neither, trust me. To be honest, it feels so weird that I’m probably going to sell it and buy a big apartment in L.A., this way, I can move in next to Abed.”

“That sounds more like you, indeed.”

“It’s so weird, I haven’t seen you guys in over five years but it’s like I never left! Nothing has changed!”

“Oh but trust me, things have definitely changed, you’ll see over the weekend.”

“I don’t see it. I can feel like there’s a sort of awkward vibe going around but I’m sure it will ease off very soon.”

Jeff couldn’t keep on being his usual buzzkill pessimist when he saw how gleeful Troy was, so he just smiled at him as they entered the last room of the tour.

“So… this is just a room with a giant pool in it.” Jeff commented out.

“Yeaaah...” Troy sighed. “It’s basically useless but since it’s too cold outside to use the outdoor pool, we can make something nice out of it.”

“I assume Abed immediately had something planned out for this room, didn’t he?”

“Oh, totally. Spoiler alert but it definitely has something to do with ‘Baywatch’. I’m guessing you’ll play David Hasselhoff’s part and Britta will do Pamela Anderson’s.”

“Obviously, I didn’t see this going otherwise.”

“Well, I assume everyone’s done unpacking, we should join them in the living room and start talking about our weekend’s agenda!”

Jeff followed Troy’s lead, afraid of getting lost in this giant mansion, as they made their way to the living room. Everyone else was already there, chatting around. Once Abed saw Troy and Jeff entering the room, he grabbed an air horn out of the blue and honked it so loudly everyone covered their ears to keep them from turning deaf. Now that they all stopped talking, Abed put the horn back and smiled softly.

“Are you crazy, Abed??” Craig yelled out. “I’m the Dean, I have to keep my five senses functioning properly!”

“Oh so that’s okay for the rest of us to end up deaf, since we’re no Dean??” Chang retorted, talking too loud and keeping his hands over his ears.

“I needed to get your attention now that Troy has finally joined us.” Abed simply responded.

“Ladies and gentlemen!” Troy announced while coming to Abed’s side. “As you probably figured out already, this reunion weekend ain’t going to be all chilling and relaxing. It’s going to be the real deal.”

“More like the real Dean…”

“Please Dean, we’ve rehearsed our speech, don’t ruin it.”

“Wait Troy, we can’t do the speech without the appropriate music in the background.” Abed said before running to the other side of the room.

“Oh yeah, right, sorry… Please, hold.” Troy said to the others.

As he was oddly waiting for what would happen next, Jeff raised his eyebrows at Britta, who simply shrugged. Coming from the infamous Troy and Abed duo, they could expect any sorts of weird fantasies.

Abed tuned his phone to a Bluetooth speaker and put some music on before running back to Troy. The speaker was now playing the opening theme of the movie ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’, making everyone chuckle a little.

“So, as we were saying, this weekend is the real deal.” Troy pursued, while everyone listened religiously to him. “The last time we were all together, we played the most awesome game of ‘the floor is lava’ ever at Greendale. But now, we have to do even BETTER than that.”

“We wanted to perpetuate the tradition and do something at the school but the Dean didn’t agree.” Abed added, eyeing Craig while speaking.

“I simply believe your paintball games damaged Greendale enough as it is.” Craig intervened with a smug face.

“When he turned us down, I was really bummed.” Abed continued as if Craig didn’t speak. “But then, I came to check on Troy’s new mansion and when I saw how much potential it actually had, I knew.”

“And what did you know, Abed?” Troy asked as if he was reading a script.

“I knew we would have the greatest reunion weekend ever.”

Troy and Abed exchanged their typical handshake while the Space Odyssey’s theme song was still playing in the background.

“Are you getting to the point soon? I’m starting to get hungry.” Jeff asked.

“Shh!” Annie hushed him.

“Oh but prepare to famish Jeff, because we’re not going to eat anytime soon.” Abed announced.

“What???” Everyone – except for Troy and Abed – exclaimed.

“What do you mean ‘we’re not going to eat anytime soon’?” Britta asked, frowning.

“Annie, what are they talking about?” Jeff asked.

“I have no idea, they wouldn’t let me in on it!” Annie defended herself.

“I just told you guys we needed to do even better than ‘the floor is lava’.” Troy repeated.

“So we thought of something even better…” Abed added.

“AN ESCAPE GAME!!” Troy and Abed yelled at the same time.

The music suddenly stopped. Everyone turned towards Jeff, standing next to the speaker, which was now off.

“Okay, call me a buzzkill all you want but I sincerely hope the next forty-eight hours aren’t going to be full of games and movies scenarios to enact. I came here to have a good time with my friends, not to play some stupid games all day long!”

“Jeff, you knew damn straight what you were walking into when you agreed to come to this reunion, so why are you complaining now??” Britta yelled at him.

“I just didn’t think it would begin the second we arrived! Can we at least have dinner first? I’m starving and I’m not thinking straight on an empty stomach.”

“Oh so you’re just afraid you’ll lose the game, then. Classic Winger.”

“Wh– what?? No, I don’t care about this stupide escape game!”

“Liar.”

Britta started imitating chicken noises, followed by Troy and Chang. Jeff was giving them a death stare before rolling his eyes.

“Remind me how old you guys are again?” Jeff hit them.

“Not as old as you, Grandpa.” Britta provoked.

“Okay, that’s it.” Jeff said while coming back with the rest of the group. “What’s the theme of this escape game? I want to choose who gets to be on my team, so that we can team up against Britta’s.”

The chicken noises ceased immediately and Britta now looked particularly proud of herself at this moment.

“Choose your teams before we give you the rules of the game.” Abed announced.

“Are you guys playing too? Isn’t it considered cheating if you’re the ones who made the rules?” Annie asked when she saw Troy and Abed joining the rest of them.

“We didn’t make the rules. We have no idea what the game is going to look like, just like you guys.” Troy answered.

“So… who did make the rules, then?”

“Don’t worry about that.”

Right after Troy’s reply, some people started going down the stairs leading to the upper floors, with empty bags in their hands. They waved at Troy and Abed before heading out, all of them except one, a middle-aged man dressed in a black suit and standing still in the living room door frame.

“Who the hell were these people?” Jeff asked, suspicious.

“And how did they come in here without us noticing?” Annie added, puzzled.

“These people are working at an escape game store downtown and agreed to come and set their scenery here.” Troy answered.

“And that’s Leo, our Gamemaster.” Abed added, pointing at the guy in the suit.

“Good evening, everyone.” Leo said while he was waving at them. “So, before I explain the rules to you, I need two team leaders.”

Jeff and Britta automatically moved forward and smirked at each other. When these two were competing against each other, everyone knew it would be all fun and games until somebody loses their minds.

“Perfect.” Leo continued with a hint of a smile. “Now, pick your teammates.”

“Wait, there’s seven of us, it won’t be fair play if the teams aren’t even.” Jeff pointed out.

“Abed and I count as one person, we already thought it through.” Troy comforted him.

“Uh, okay, fair enough I guess.” Jeff granted, shrugging. “Okay, I’ll start. I want Annie.”

When she heard her name, Annie blushed, mostly because of how Jeff had articulated his sentence. She moved forward and stood next to him, trying to compose herself.

“What are the odds, you picking Annie first.” Britta teased Jeff.

“I picked her first because I knew if I didn’t, you would have. And… She works at a federal agency, doesn’t she? I’m just putting the odds in my favor.”

“Sure Winger, that’s definitely the only reason you picked her on your team. Fine, I want Troy and Abed.”

After exchanging a handshake, the duo walked towards Britta and stood behind her. The only ones left now were Chang and Craig. The latter was waving at Jeff, asking him to pick him on his team.

“Perfect, that’s like choosing between a rock and a hard place.” Jeff mumbled.

“Jeff! Be nice.” Annie scolded him.

“Ugh fine, I guess I’ll pick… Chang.”

“Ha ha! Sucker!” Chang said to Craig before heading to Jeff and Annie.

“I see.” Craig humbly said before heading to Britta. “Just so you know, what you just did is considered like an act of treason and the consequences will be severe, Jeffrey.”

“Okay, so now that both teams are complete, let me present to you the theme of our escape game!” Leo exclaimed.

He took a remote out of his pocket and pointed it towards the television hang above the fireplace. The TV turned on and a creepy music started playing. Abed suddenly looked ecstatic.

“Cool. Cool cool cool.” He simply said with a light smile on his face.

“Ladies and gentlemen…” Leo started in a low voice. “The year is 1952. A psychiatric facility just closed his doors to the public due to a terrible, terrible tragedy… Something rather gruesome has happened, if you’ll allow me. Words on the street are that a patient who was locked up in there for many years has just murdered a couple of doctors in very strange and unaccounted circumstances… He has completely vanished into thin air afterwards.”

“Jeez Abed, I have chills!” Troy whispered while Abed nodded at him to agree.

“Time went by, but the dreadful secrets are still hidden behind those walls… Rumor has it that when you walk nearby, you can still hear the screams, you can still feel the excruciating pain built up in those walls for so long…”

“I don’t think I like where this is going, to be honest.” Craig said, looking concerned.

“Those who were brave enough to come close reported some things rather unsettling about this place… Something is definitely up there. But what is really going on inside this abandoned place? That’s what you brave fellas will have to find out.”

Leo grabbed the remote back and turned off the TV. Afterwards, he paid attention to his audience’s reaction. Apart from Troy and Abed who smiled like idiots, everyone else was stone-faced.

“Any questions?” Leo asked, still smiling.

“How many rooms are they?” Abed asked right away.

“Of course, yes. Normally, there are three rooms, but since you guys are two teams competing against each other, we prepared three additional rooms so that each team could have its own parkour. Not to worry, both parkours are similar to the real rooms, nobody will be disadvantaged whatsoever.”

“Nice plot but what are the rules exactly?” Jeff asked, apparently confused.

“Ugh, you really are old Jeff, have you ever played an escape game before?” Britta huffed.

“The rules are simple.” Leo said to Jeff. “Your goal is to manage to exit the room in a time limit of sixty minutes. For that, you need to solve riddles and work alongside your teammates to find the answers. Each room contains clues that will lead you to the riddle getting you to the next room.”

“Pff and we have one hour to do that? Easy.” Jeff scoffed.

“Don’t brag just yet Jeff, these games are meant to be difficult and there are usually some obstacles along the way.” Abed told him.

“Indeed, Mr. Nadir, there will be obstacles, otherwise, where would be the fun?” Leo said. “Okay, now, if you’ll follow me upstairs, we’ll get you to the rooms and once everyone is settled, the timer will begin. Remember. sixty minutes, not one more.”

He started walking towards the stairs and everyone followed him up. They went all the way to the last floor, the third one. Everyone started frowning and looking at Troy.

“Troy, this floor wasn’t part of our tour, was it?” Annie asked.

“Of course not, Leo’s team has been preparing the rooms since this morning, I wasn’t going to spoil the whole thing to you guys.”

“But… Didn’t these rooms have some kind of furniture in them or…?”

“This floor hasn’t been used since the mid-50’s, according to Pierce’s estate agent.”

“Not creepy at all…” Craig whispered.

“Okay, first team, go to your left and wait in front of door number one. Second team, go to your right and do the same thing.” Leo commanded.

As they were told, Jeff’s team went on the left and Britta’s team on the right. Once they were in front of the designated doors, Leo got a timer out of his bag and showed it up so that everyone would be able to look at it.

“Now, remember… Find the clues, solve the riddles, and beware of the traps. But most of all… Never give your entire trust to the person next to you, you never know who you’re dealing with…”

Once he said those words, everyone started looking suspiciously at each other.

“Alright, enter the rooms and once you’ll have closed the door, the timer will start. In sixty minutes, if you haven’t succeeded and are still locked in the rooms, I’ll come get you. Now… Good luck in the mental house, fellows!”

On that note, he showed the doors to the teams so that they’d start going inside. They complied and once both doors were close, they heard a timer noise through some speakers inside the rooms. They heard someone locking the doors, which indicated they were now locked in the rooms. The escape game had officially begun.

_____

“Okay, guys, we have thirty minutes left and we’ve only passed the first room, now we have to be quicker!”

Jeff’s statement made Annie and Chang nod, though they were already fully aware of that.

“For someone who was reluctant to the idea of an escape game in the first place, you sure are the most committed to it now.” Annie observed.

“I just want our team to win Annie, that’s all.”

“You want our team to win or you just want to beat Britta?”

“Your sarcasm makes me think you already know the answer to that question. Now, where are those clues? – ”

“If I had to guess, I’d say they’re probably inside the gutted dummy over there.”

Chang was pointing his finger towards an operating table on the corner of the room with a really bad lighting, on which a dummy covered in fake blood was lying on.

“Gross.” Jeff sighed. “Well, who wants to do the honor?”

“I get it Jeff, you’re afraid you’ll ruin your hands covered in expensive body lotion. Let me handle it.”

Annie then moved forward and examined the dummy to figure out where the clues might be hidden. Jeff wanted to be annoyed by Annie’s occasional bickering but to be honest, he was simply massively attracted to how confident she was. He couldn’t even pretend to be mad at her for making fun of him.

“What kind of body lotion do you use?” Chang suddenly whispered to Jeff while Annie shoved her hand inside the dummy’s gutted belly. “Because I sort of have a ‘crumpled hands’ situation since the last time I used one and…”

“Not now, Ben.” Jeff interrupted while looking at Annie.

“ _Voilà_!” Annie exclaimed.

Before she searched the dummy, her hands were empty, but now, she was holding two little pieces of paper inside them.

“Gosh, Annie, you’re amazing!” Jeff said, genuinely happy.

He walked to her and was about to embrace her but pulled away at the last second and patted her on the head instead, an old habit he had a hard time getting rid of. He understood that was a mistake when he saw Annie was giving him the stink eye.

“I would really appreciate if you’d stop doing that, it’s demeaning.” Annie stung.

“Sorry, I don’t know why I did that…” Jeff stammered, embarrassed.

“Probably because it’s easier for you to do that rather than treating me like the actual adult I am.”

“Ugh get a rooooom, you two!” Chang sighed, grabbing the pieces of paper from Annie’s hands.

“Shut up, Ben!” Jeff and Annie yelled in one voice.

They quickly gathered their thoughts to concentrate on the clues and solve the riddle to get to the third and last room. At some point, they were so focused they didn’t notice the live screamer that had entered the room and was about to jump scare them. A man dressed like a psychiatric patient suddenly screamed behind them, making them shriek so loud their throats hurt. The man exited right after, leaving them to compose themselves.

Once he calmed down, Jeff realized his arm was hurting him, like something was biting him to a pulp. He looked down to see Annie’s fingernails sunken into his forearm.

“Ouch, Annie, get off me!” Jeff told her.

She moved her hand away and placed her hair back as she always used to do to make a good impression of herself.

“Sorry, I got carried away in the moment.” Annie apologized. “That screamer was definitely the worst since we began!”

“Agreed. I think I peed my pants.” Chang suddenly said.

“Eww, seriously Ben??” Jeff cried out.

____

On the other side of the floor, Britta’s team was almost finished with the game, already searching for the clues in the final room.

“Aaaaand we still have fifteen minutes left, aren’t we the best guys?” Britta bragged. “I bet Jeff’s team is still locked on their second room.”

“It’s too soon to claim victory yet, Britta. You’re going to jinx us.” Abed pointed out.

“I’m sorry, I need a minute to get over the fact that I had to search clues inside someone’s belly.” Craig said while sitting, as white as a sheet.

“For the tenth time, it was NOT a real person, Craig, get over it!” Britta sighed, annoyed with the Dean’s cowardice.

“But his body covered in blood sure made it feel real!” Craig hollered in a high-pitched voice.

“It was FAKE blood, oh my…”

“Calm down guys, let’s not fight now that we’re so close to the end.” Troy interrupted.

“Troy’s right.” Abed said.

“Of course, when are you ever going to disagree with Troy, Abed?” Britta scoffed.

“When he’s not right, obviously. Are you not following, Britta?”

“Ugh I give up, I’m going to look in these shady closets for our last clues.”

Britta complied right after speaking and moved to the other side of the room to open a dusty old cabinet full of vials in order to search it.

“I hope I won’t find a human finger in here…” She whispered to herself.

The room they were in was the creepiest they had seen since the beginning of the game. There was a harrowing music playing in the background, while some buzzing light on the ceiling was turning on and off every second. They could be startled any moment considering the atmosphere. While Britta searched through the cabinet, Craig decided he wouldn’t play anymore and sat down on a questionable chair. Meanwhile, Troy and Abed, working as one person, searched the other side of the room for clues.

“Troy, I need your opinion on something.” Abed suddenly whispered to his friend.

“Sure, what’s up?”

“If you found out one of your friend was lying to another one of your friend, what would you do?”

“Huh… I guess that depends on the lie. Is it serious?”

“Not really. It’s mostly stupid. I don’t even understand why she would lie about something like that in the first place.”

“’ _She_ ’? Are you talking about… someone in this mansion?”

“I can’t say. I promised I’d keep my mouth shut.”

“Oh, okay.”

Troy didn’t know what to add, even though he was dying to know more. If Abed turned to him for advice, when he usually didn’t have a personal opinion on his friends’ problems, he probably knew something juicy and unusual.

“I really want to tell you, though.” Abed finally said. “I don’t like being the secret keeper. In comedies, it’s always the worst part. These type of characters are the perfect embodiment of the saying ‘don’t shoot the messenger’ because it’s not their fault they have to keep a secret in the first place but when the secret is eventually out – and it always is –, they’re the ones people blame. I don’t want to have this part.”

“Then… Do you want me to keep the secret instead? There can only be one secret keeper, you know. Once you’ve told me, you won’t remember it. It’s logical.”

That was obviously not true but Troy hoped it would convince Abed to open up and tell him this juicy secret he had to keep. Troy hoped it wasn’t something that would eventually ruin the reunion though, like Abed predicted.

“Fine.” Abed conceded. “But you have to promise to keep it to yourself. She said it’s really important to her.”

“Of course, I promise.”

“You have to pinky swear. She made me pinky swear.”

 _Ha, he’s obviously talking about Annie_ , Troy thought to himself while pinky swearing with Abed.

“Okay, I’m now bound by the sacred ‘pinky swear’ promise to keep this secret with me.” Troy solemnly said.

“Cool cool cool.”

Abed checked that Britta and Craig were not listening to them and then proceeded to whisper in Troy’s ear.

“You know how Annie told us she has broken things off with her boyfriend a couple of weeks ago?”

“Hmm hmm.” Troy nodded.

“Well, that’s not what she told Jeff.”

Troy gasped, drawing Britta’s attention to them.

“Hey, don’t let me do all the dirty work, we only have ten minutes left!” Britta scolded.

“Sorry.” Troy apologized. “That’s the secret you have to keep?” He whispered to Abed. “I thought it would be related to aliens or something.”

“What secret?” Abed asked with a straight face.

“Well… The one you’ve just told me. About Annie and Jeff.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I know no secret at the time being.”

“Oh, right, you’re no longer the secret keeper so you don’t remember it.” Troy played along. “What am I going to do with this? If Jeff asks me, I won’t be able to lie!”

“Why did you say you could be the secret keeper if you are incapable of lying?”

“Because I wanted to know what kind of gossip you had!”

“But you made a pinky swear.”

“Thanks for reminding me I might break off a pinky swear, I’m already ashamed of it!”

“I told you our reunion weekend would eventually be a disaster. This secret is obviously the triggering factor and it’s only going to get worse.”

“No it won’t, this weekend won’t turn out to be a disaster because I’m going to shut up and keep this secret to myself!”

“Sure.”

Troy could feel Abed’s sarcasm through that one little word and coming from him, that said a lot. He grunted and turned around to move away. Before he could move any further, he stumbled upon something and fell to the floor. The room was so dark it was impossible to see anything, even within a close perimeter.

“Jeez Troy, are you okay??” Britta exclaimed while rushing towards him.

“Yeah, I’m fine, I just stepped over something…”

“I think you might’ve stepped over our finally clue.”

Britta was now holding a rubber glove, from which a piece of paper was coming out. Britta and Troy raised their eyebrows at each other while Craig and Abed came over to see what was happening.

“Does it mean we have won?” Craig asked.

“If we can solve this last riddle, I think it means we have won, indeed.” Britta said with an evil smirk.

________

Jeff’s team managed to come out of the last room only ten seconds before the end of the game. At first, they were excited and glad with themselves, but that was before seeing Britta’s team gently waving at them from the other side of the hallway.

“What…” Jeff started, disappointed.

“That’s right, sucker. WE WON!” Britta yelled.

“We came out like one minute before you guys so it was a tight race.” Troy reassured when he noticed Jeff’s disappointment.

“Who cares if it was a tight race? We won, that’s the most important thing here.” Britta gloated.

Jeff pouted for the ten minutes that followed, from the moment Leo came back to congratulate both teams for managing to get out of the rooms before the end of the time until the moment they were back to the living-room to finally have dinner. He only stopped pouting when he noticed something had changed in the room.

“Okay, I have to admit, this is a real treat for the eyes.”

There was now a huge table standing in the middle of the room, on which laid tons of food and beverages. There were pizzas, potato chips, dipping sauce, and tons of beer.

“Now, that’s what I’m talking about.” Jeff said while rubbing his hands together.

“Thank you guys for playing along, that escape game was truly awesome.” Troy said. “I missed these moments with all of you. So thank you for that.”

Annie let out her classic “aww” while everyone sincerely smiled at Troy. They couldn’t argue with the fact that each and every one of them was truly delighted to be here at this moment.

“Now, who wants to get this party starteeeeed??”

As he said those words, he rushed to the table to start eating, quickly followed by everyone else. Leo waved them goodbye and exited the mansion, leaving the group between them.

Once everyone filled up their belly, Britta put some music on in order to dance a little. The others joined her and started doing some quirky dance moves as Jeff laughed from the other side of the room. He had grabbed a beer before sitting on the back of the sofa, watching his favorite study group goofing around.

At some point, he involuntarily made eye contact with Annie, who was dancing up-close with Britta. He dived deep into her blue eyes before breaking the eye contact, suddenly feeling awkward. He couldn’t stop thinking about the fact that she had a boyfriend across the country waiting for her to come back home to him, and that single thought felt like a punch in his stomach. The only time Annie actually had a boyfriend when they were at Greendale was when she dated that stupid Vaughn guy, but it was so long ago Jeff didn’t really care at the time. Now, it was very much different because Annie had changed, Jeff had changed, and their relationship had changed as well.

Jeff had gotten so lost in his own thoughts he didn’t notice someone was now sitting on the back of the sofa next to him.

“Are you still sulking because we lost?”

He turned his head to look at Annie after she asked him that. She was gently smiling at him while holding a beer in her hand. Jeff noticed her hair was a little bit messy from her dancing. He tried to think about anything else than the fact that she was incredibly beautiful but he was actually incapable of wrapping his head around it.

“Since when do you drink beer?” Jeff asked, amused.

“You’d be surprised.” Annie replied playfully.

“I wasn’t sulking, by the way.” He asserted.

“Of course you weren’t.” She said sarcastically.

“Besides, Britta seems to be having the time of her life because of that, so who am I to take that away from her?”

“You should take it easy on her you know, sometimes you can be a bit tough.”

“She knows I’m just messing with her. I wouldn’t be a jerk to her, she’s the closest thing I have to a best friend these days.”

“Yeah… We didn’t talk much but she seemed to think you were having a hard time since you turned…”

“Don’t say it out loud, please.”

“Sorry. Well. You know what I mean anyway.”

“That’s her therapist side speaking, but really, I’m fine. The only thing that actually bothers me is how everyone is trying so hard to make me pathetic by thinking I’m miserable.”

“It’s not pathetic to feel down sometimes, Jeff. It’s what life is made of. Ups and downs. There’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

“And yet, I have a lot of things to be ashamed of… You more than anyone should know that.”

Annie looked down at her shoes and subtly licked her lower lip, bracing herself for what was obviously coming next in her conversation with Jeff.

“You know, it’s a bit upsetting to notice that whenever you seem to be thinking of me, the only thing you’re feeling is shame. It’s like that’s all I am to you, like I’m the embodiment of everything you hate about yourself.”

“It’s really not great when you put it that way.”

“Well, that’s how I feel.”

“I don’t want you to think that because it’s absolutely not true. You mean so much more to me than you can possibly imagine.”

“Then, why is it always so complicated? Why does it always seem like you’re conflicted whenever I’m around?”

Jeff let out a frustrating sigh and wiped his hand down his face. He wanted to tell her that he wanted things to be simpler, that she was perfect, that he hated himself for being such a coward, for always having been. But the words couldn’t get out of his mouth.

“You know Jeff, before anything else, you and I were friends. You should try and remember that sometimes.” Annie said after seeing Jeff wasn’t going to say anything.

“Well, maybe we shouldn’t be friends anymore, then.”

Of all the things he wanted to tell her, _that’s_ what came out of his stupid mouth?

“I see.” Annie simply said with a straight face. “Maybe you’re right.”

“Wait, Annie, I didn’t mean it like th–”

“Let me tell you what I think.” Annie stopped him before he finished his sentence. “Nobody cares about your age but you. You know _I_ never cared about your age. But you’re so obsessed with it you’ve let it ruin your life and keep you from doing things you wanted to do. And maybe you wouldn’t be miserable right now if you decided to loosen up and not give a crap about it. And may I add, maybe you wouldn’t be ashamed of yourself if you finally admitted that the real reason you let me go five years ago is you being afraid to admit what you actually feel about me. You keep telling yourself our age gap is the problem but the truth is you were afraid to let yourself go into it, into _us_. You were afraid of that because you knew if you’d let yourself go, we’d become real. And that scared you. And it really saddens me to see that to this day, it still does.”

Annie’s speech was so close to the truth that Jeff remained speechless after she finished talking. It’s like she saw through him. She actually managed to put words on Jeff’s confused inner thoughts. How could he possibly have let go of someone who understood him so well when no one, not even himself, was able to do that?

“Well, was I close?” Annie asked.

“Scarily close, even.” Jeff breathed.

“Too bad you never said anything about it and let me torture myself on why you keep rejecting me.”

“Okay, I see where all of this is coming from now. You’re mad at me for the 2016 reunion, aren’t you?”

“Of course I’m mad at you! I had so much expectations but all you did was scatter my heart into a million pieces, like you always did!”

“Fine, you want to know why I keep on pushing you away, Annie? You really want me to say it?”

Annie was apparently not expecting Jeff to say such a thing because it was now her turn to remain silent.

“I keep on pushing you away because you deserve so much more than somebody like me.” Jeff continued when he understood Annie wouldn’t answer. “You deserve the world, Annie Edison. And I’m not able to give you that. I want you to be happy so much that the best thing I can do is to let you go. That’s why I didn’t say anything when you left for Washington. That’s why I didn’t say anything when you moved to New-York. That’s also why I didn’t say anything when we saw each other again four years ago. I didn’t say anything because I needed you to let me go as well. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to give up on you the way I did.”

Annie’s eyes were now filled with tears. Tears of anger, tears of rage, tears of disappointment, and of course, tears of sadness. How many times would she let Jeff Winger break her heart before finally being able to stop loving him?

“You’re such a coward…” Annie managed to whisper as the tears started rolling down her cheeks.

“Annie, I hate that I’m doing this to you right now.” Jeff breathed, trying to touch her face to wipe away her tears.

“Don’t.” She stung, pushing Jeff’s hand away. “I think you’ve made yourself pretty clear.”

“You wanted me to admit the truth, just know that it is as painful to me as it probably is to you.”

“Fine.” She cleared her throat while trying to compose herself. “We’ve both said what we needed to say to each other. Now what?”

“What do you mean ‘now what’? I’ve missed the boat, Annie. You’re dating someone else now…”

Annie wanted to tell Jeff the truth about her actual relationship status but the defeated look on his face when he realized he might have missed his chance with her forever gave her such a weird desire for revenge that she decided to keep the ‘boyfriend’ lie alive for a bit longer. To make Jeff doubt and self-wonder the way she did.

“Right.” Annie simply said. “I’m dating someone else. My boyfriend. In New-York. Who practically lives with me.”

Jeff looked even more so defeated now that Annie couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit of satisfaction.

“I just hope he’s aware that he’s dating the most incredible woman in the world.”

Jeff rarely talked about her using the word “woman”. When they were at Greendale, it would make Annie feel all sorts of things in her underbelly. Pride, joy, satisfaction, arousal… But now, it just left a void inside her stomach. That’s not how she wanted things to end between them. She wanted so much more than him giving up on her because he thought she was too good for him. Why did he always have to be so insecure? He could be so happy with someone like her, why did he think about her happiness instead of his?

The answer to that question was simple and made of three simple little words, but she wouldn’t let herself think about them as long as Jeff wouldn’t say them out loud.

Jeff got back on his feet, apparently ready to go somewhere else. Before moving, he got closer to Annie and stared so intensely into her eyes she thought her legs would melt under such a strong gaze. Then, he kissed her on the forehead, softly and tenderly, before going to check on the others, some still dancing, some chatting in a corner of the room.

Annie felt so sad and heartbroken she couldn’t stay in this room anymore. She needed to get to her room and cry herself to sleep. That’s the only way she would be able to exorcize her pain. She started walking towards the stairs, but Troy hailed her before she could get out of the room.

“Where are you going?” Troy asked her, looking concerned.

“I’m… a bit tired, you know, because of my six-hour flight.” Annie lied with a fake smile. “I think I’m going to get some sleep.”

“Okay.” Troy said, apparently disappointed. “Goodnight then, I hope you’re okay though.”

“I am, don’t worry. I’m just really tired. Goodnight everyone, see you tomorrow!”

Everyone wished her goodnight before minding their own business again. She crossed Jeff’s eyes but instantly looked away. She then went up the stairs as fast as she could and locked herself in her room to let her feelings rush out of herself.

Jeff was staring at the stairs Annie just walked a few seconds ago. Then, out of the blue, someone punched him in the shoulder.

“Ouch, that hurts!” Jeff grumbled.

“What did you do to her??”

Britta seemed really pissed off at this moment, and Jeff didn’t want to make it worse than it already was.

“I did what you said. I talked to her. We talked about what was really going on between us. And it sucked. Like, really sucked. Now, she hates me and I hate myself even more. So thanks for nothing, Doctor Perry.”

“Hey, don’t blame it on me, you both had some issues you needed to talk through, it’s not my fault your relationship is a mess!”

Jeff didn’t answer and threw his empty beer into the nearest trashcan before walking out of the room.

“You’re going to bed too, Jeff?” Troy asked.

“Yeah, I’m tired, goodnight everyone.” Jeff said quickly before going up the stairs.

Everyone looked puzzled by Jeff’s reaction.

“What the hell is up with him?” Chang suddenly asked.

“Meh, he’s probably upset because of Annie’s fake boyfriend.”

Troy realized his mistake when Abed stared at him wide-eyed and Britta opened her mouth in shock.


	4. Sex dream and Marco Polo.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeff has a sex dream about Annie. The group plays a Marco Polo game in the pool and both Jeff and Annie are determined to win.

The sound of birds chirping woke Jeff up that morning. The first thing he did was checking his phone. It was already late in the morning but he didn’t feel any rest whatsoever. The least to say was that he didn’t spend the best night of his life.

His hurtful honest “adult” conversation with Annie from last night had kept him up for at least two hours before he could finally fall asleep. And even when he was finally able to sleep, Annie was haunting his dreams, occasionally waking him up. He had one dream where they were arguing again but, this time, they were on a desert island and while they were fighting, Britta and Abed were picking coconuts from the ground to throw them around. Obviously, that one woke him up pretty fast. Afterwards, he had a dream where they were back at Greendale, but the study room looked like the inside of the Millennium Falcon and instead of the Dean making his usual costume announcements, Chewbacca did. Jeff was really confused by that one. And finally, the dream that woke him up breaking into a sweat was the terribly not PG-rated sex dream. Not only was he appalled by this dream, but he was obliged to admit that he was rather frustrated when he woke up.

He got out of bed and got dressed quickly before exiting his room. He knew his next-doors bedroom neighbors were Britta on his left and Craig on his right. Without any surprise, he went knocking on the left bedroom door.

He heard Britta grunting before opening the door. She was still in her pajamas, her hair tied up in a neglected bun and her eyes puffy. Obviously, she didn’t wake up a long time ago either.

“What do you want, Winger?” Britta mumbled.

“Can I tell you something? And promise you won’t tell anyone.” Jeff said while letting himself in.

“Please, come on in, be my guest!” Britta said sarcastically.

He sat down on Britta’s bed and inhaled slowly before exhaling sharply.

“I had a sex dream about Annie last night.” He admitted shamefully.

That news seemed to wake Britta up for good, since her eyes widened greatly.

“Ouuuuh, dirty naughty Jeff!” She exclaimed in a baby voice while sitting next to him to poke him in the arm. “Was it PG-13?”

“I’m afraid not…”

“My my, someone’s horny around here!”

“Shh, keep it down, I don’t want everyone to hear that!”

“Get over yourself Jeff, you had a sex dream, so what? It happens to literally everyone. I bet every single person in this house already had a sex dream about you.”

“… even Chang?”

“Possibly even Chang, yep.”

“Anyway, the sex dream isn’t the point. Well, it isn’t _really_ the point.”

“What is, then?”

“Never once in the last ten years have I had a sex dream about Annie.”

“You want me to actually believe that?”

“I’m not a perv!”

“Ugh always jumping to that conclusion, aren’t you? Anyway, I assume you came talking to me about it because you wanted my opinion on the matter, right?”

Jeff looked like he was about to throw up at this moment.

“Wow it actually physically pains you to say you need my opinion, doesn’t it?” Britta scoffed.

“Please don’t make this harder than it already is.” Jeff begged her.

“Alright, you want to know what I think? Psychological studies have shown that sex dreams are actually almost never about sex.”

“What kind of gibberish is that now?”

“Let me finish. Those dreams are usually a reflection of a desire you might have to connect two parts of yourself coming together. Since sex is the actual physical merging of two bodies, then it seems only natural that this idea of connecting two parts is taking the form of sex in a dream.”

“Okay, now I’m confused… So it means that I actually had a sex dream about… myself?”

“Again, let me finish. What I mean by ‘two parts of yourself’ is that, on one hand, there’s yourself, and on the other hand, something else that also represents a part of yourself, or at least, that you’d want to be a part of yourself. Something–”

“– or someone.” Jeff gathered.

“There you go. Dreams aren’t an exact science so you can give it any interpretation you’d like but usually, professionals agree on that fact regarding sex dreams.”

“So it could mean that I want Annie to be a part of… myself?”

“To be a part of your life, yeah. A part of you.”

“Huh. I just assumed I was horny because I didn’t have sex in a while.”

“Yeah, that… That could also just be it.” Britta conceded. “And your subconscious pictured Annie because you’re attracted to her so it makes sense.”

“Oh God, how can I face her now that I’ve dreamt of her in inappropriate positi…”

“Okay, that’s where I’m stepping out, I don’t want to know what’s going in that filthy mind of yours.” Britta interrupted while getting up.

“But you need to help me!”

“What do you want me to do? Erase your memory? I’m not the Men in Black. You had a sex dream about the girl you like, it’s really not that big of a deal.”

Britta softened a little when she noticed how uncomfortable Jeff actually seemed in this situation.

“Look, just… Stop thinking about it and eventually, it’ll be just like one of those dreams you forget the minute you get out of the bed.”

“Hmm.” Jeff mumbled, obviously not convinced.

“And don’t beat yourself up because you dreamt of Annie naked, she’s a grown woman, it’s not a shame to fantasize about her.”

“Hmm.”

“Okay, now you’re just mumbling around, come with me and let’s go get breakfast.”

Britta grabbed Jeff by the arm and they both got out of the room. At the same time, Craig was going out of his room and stared at them with a deeply judging look.

“Don’t tell me you two are humping again?” Craig sighed.

“You know Craig, a man and a woman can have a platonic relationship without it being reduced to coitus all the t–”

“Please Britta, I just woke up, I don’t want my day to start like this.”

Jeff couldn’t help but chortle a little at Craig’s comment, making Britta punch him in the shoulder. The three of them then proceeded to go downstairs to the living room, where the others were already having breakfast.

“Hmm, it smells so good in here!” Britta exclaimed while sitting between Annie and Abed.

“Hey guys!” Troy greeted, with a great smile. “So, since we all woke up a bit late, we decided to do brunch instead of breakfast, I assume it’s fine by everyone?”

Everyone nodded, which reassured Troy. He truly wanted everything about this weekend to be perfect, especially after his massive screw-up from last night regarding Annie’s secret.

Jeff sat at the head of the table, allowing him to have a good sight of all his friends. On his left, there were Troy, Chang and Craig. On his right, there were Abed, Britta and Annie. He looked longer at the latter, who carefully avoided making eye contact with him. He could tell by the dark circles under her eyes that she probably didn’t have a good night sleep either. Knowing he was probably the reason and knowing he made her suffer was an unbearable feeling and he didn’t know how to make up for it.

And just like that, without any warning, his brain started going rogue and reminded him of a scene from his sex dream. It felt like his face was on fire and he immediately looked away to get rid of that image.

“Fuck me…” Jeff whispered.

“Jeff, are you okay? You look sick.”

Jeff tried to gather his thoughts in order to answer Troy’s question.

“Yeah, I’m fine, I just got up on the wrong side of the bed, that’s all.” He lied.

“You sure? You look really pale. There’s some drugs on the kitchen counter if you need, you can go get some if you’d–”

“I’m perfectly fine where I am right now, Troy, never mind.”

“No but really, or if you need to go to the bathroom–”

“I’m fine, I don’t need to go anywhere, trust me.”

Unfortunately, he crossed eyes with Britta at this moment and she apparently understood right away what was actually going on since she tried not to burst out laughing.

“Okay, whatever bro.” Troy conceded, frowning at Jeff.

Apart from Britta who tried really hard not to laugh, everyone was eating their brunch in silence. At some point, Annie broke the silence.

“So, what’s the plan for today, guys?” She asked Troy and Abed cheerfully.

“We were waiting for you guys to finish eating but shall we, Abed?”

“We shall, Troy.”

They both rose up from their chairs and paid attention to each and every one of their friends, who listened to them attentively.

“Alright, so, first things first… Abed, if you might.” Troy stated solemnly.

“We have a surprise for you.” Abed announced with a crooked smile.

“What a shocker.” Jeff sniggered.

“We sure hope it’ll set a good mood for the day.” Troy continued. “And without further ado…”

He pointed at the door frame, which prompted everyone to turn around and looked towards what Troy was apparently showing them. They stood in disbelief afterwards.

“Hello, everyone.” They heard a soft voice say.

The first person to rise up from their chair to embrace the newly arrived was Britta, promptly followed by Annie. Both girls jumped into Shirley’s arms, wrapping her into a tight embrace.

“Oh my God, Shirley!” Annie babbled. “It’s been such a long time!!”

“I knoooow, I’ve missed you girls!” Shirley cooed. “An-niiiie, look at you, you are gorgeous! Why did you cut your beautiful long hair so short, though??”

“I wanted to look more… mature.”

Annie couldn’t help but stare at Jeff while saying that, which urged him to avoid eye contact right away. He had finally managed to gather himself, he didn’t want it to start again, especially now that the ultimate expert on judgement Shirley Bennett was also in the room.

“Well… I’ll miss those beautiful hair of yours but you’re still a stunning young woman.” Shirley softly asserted.

“Thanks, Shirley. You look amazing too!!”

“You’re an angel. Brittaaaa!” Shirley exclaimed, insisting on the ‘t’ sound in the middle of her name.

“Shirleeeeey!” Britta chirped.

“You look just the same. Still a beautiful lady. With some wrinkles now hihi.”

“Wrink… Really?” Britta cried out. “Why did nobody tell me I had wrinkles??”

“Maybe you should have kept the wrinkles part to yourself.” Annie told Shirley in confidence.

Shirley then scanned the room and made a huge smile at Troy, Abed, Jeff, Craig and Chang.

“I feel like I’m back in this study room again. It’s nice.”

“I thought you were at your nephew’s wedding this weekend?” Annie eventually mentioned.

“Oh, but I am. The wedding is nearby, so I dropped by before the ceremony starts this afternoon.”

“We thought it would be nice to surprise you guys.” Abed interfered. “In a reunion trope, there’s always a surprise guest that wasn’t supposed to come in the first place but does anyway.”

“I’m so glad you’re here, Shirley!!” Annie squealed, quickly hugging her friend. “Then, what’s the plan while Shirley’s with us, Troy?”

“We thought about chilling by the indoor pool for a while.”

“And by chilling, he really means pretend like we’re in ‘Baywatch’.” Abed corrected. “I have designated roles for each of you.”

“Let me guess. I’m Pamela Anderson?” Britta sniffed.

“Correct.”

“I’m just going to pretend like it’s not offensive and sexist at all…”

“And later on, we’ll watch a movie Abed shot in L.A., it’s not even out in the theaters yet! We thought about doing that retro thing and watching it from our cars outside on a linen screen.” Troy announced.

“Wow Troy, you really _did_ plan out this weekend thoroughly!” Annie proudly said.

“I even wrote everything down in a notebook. I had the best teacher.”

“Aww!”

“Alright, I hope everyone brought their bathing suits just like I told you to in the group chat. Let’s meet at the pool room in ten minutes!”

The group of merry friends got back up and returned to their room in order to put their bathing suit on. Jeff was almost in front of his door when he felt a presence behind him. He turned back to face Abed’s inquisitive face.

“Hey Abed, isn’t your room on the other side of the mansion?” Jeff inquired.

“I know you had a sex dream about Annie.” Abed abruptly threw.

Jeff thus glared at Abed with strong discontent, thrown off by the young man’s revelation.

“Keep it down Abed!” Jeff grumbled quietly. “How do you even know about this?”

“Remember the cameras I put in your bedrooms for my reunion movie that I said I would take down since you were not on board with the movie?

“Very much so, yes.”

“Well, turns out I forgot to take down Britta’s.”

“This is so fucking twisted Abed! I’m seriously mad right now. You really need to learn about boundaries and respecting people’s privacy.”

“I was about to take it down right now, no need to lecture me.”

“I’m not lecturing you, I’m just… really upset. Why did you even come to me about this instead of pretending like you knew nothing?”

“I thought you should know that I know.”

“Well, thanks for your concern Abed, but I’m ashamed enough as it is.”

“I also thought you should know I disagree with Britta’s point of view.”

“Wh– what point of view?”

“Her thinking that sex dreams are almost never about actual sex.”

“Did you actually listen to our entire conversation?? Talk about boundaries…”

“She relies on psychological studies, well, I prefer to rely on movie tropes. When a character has a sex dream about another character, usually, it means they’re having strong feelings for the said character and need to resolve the tangible sexual tension that are eating them alive.”

“I’m sorry, let me get this straight… Did you seriously come here to tell me I should have… sex with Annie?” Jeff outlines, dumbstruck.

“I came here to take the camera down. Keep up, Jeff.”

“But–”

Jeff couldn’t pursue the conversation because Abed had already moved past him to get inside Britta’s room while she was in the bathroom and thus wouldn’t notice him taking out the camera.

“I’m starting to think you are voluntarily messing with us, Abed!” Jeff yelled out.

He never heard a response to that statement, therefore, he locked himself in his room to change clothes and join the others in the pool room. He was trying to ignore the fact that what Abed said was playing on a loop in his head, as if it actually made sense when Jeff knew it clearly didn’t. Right?

Once Abed had managed to take the camera down, he exited Britta’s bedroom quickly before she got back from the bathroom. She had gotten back into her room to grab her towel when she heard someone knocking on the door. She opened it and saw Troy standing in front of her.

“Heeey!” Troy awkwardly said.

“I know what you’re going to say, Troy.” Britta sighed while letting him in.

“Look, I feel really bad about ruining Annie’s secret, I just want to make sure you’re going to play along if she mentions it.”

“You and Abed are the worst, Annie trusted you to keep it to yourself and the first thing you did was telling everyone!”

“Not on purpose! Besides, I had no idea she would lie to Jeff about her boyfriend, it caught me off guard.”

“Look, Annie and Jeff have a complicated relationship, they’ve always had and it’s not our place to meddle. I’m guessing she lied to Jeff because she had her reasons and I’m certainly not one to judge.”

“Yeah, her reasons to make him jealous. These two are so stupid when it comes to each other they’re going to ruin our reunion weekend!”

“No one’s going to ruin our reunion weekend Troy, relax.”

“That’s not what Abed says.”

“Well, Abed isn’t always right, you know.”

“Oh but he is. Remember that time in our first year at Greendale he predicted all sorts of stuff in his movie that actually happened in real life?”

“Oh come on, that was just a bunch of coincidences. He’s not a psychic.”

“Well, I hope you’re right because he keeps on saying we’re heading towards a disaster. And now, he’s also saying Jeff and Annie are going to have sex. In fact, he argues that both events are connected to each other and one of them will inevitably cause the other. He just doesn’t know which one yet.”

“Pff, don’t even worry about that. Our reunion won’t turn into a disaster. And by the looks of it, Jeff and Annie are not even close to having sex any time soon.” Britta scoffed.

___

Troy had turned the pool room into a nice false beach scenery, with sand, coconut trees, a beach bar and some tropical music in the background. The beach bar was simply made of a wooden booth on which stood coconut cocktails but it added quite the charm to the current atmosphere. All of a sudden, everyone almost forgot that it was actually mid-January.

“Troy, this is amazing!” Annie gasped, marveled.

“Just out of curiosity, how do you manage to take care of all of this when you’re basically with us all the time?” Craig asked.

“You don’t see them because they’re quiet but I have a team of people helping me out.”

“The escape game people?”

“Probably.”

“I wonder how much you paid them to convince them to do all this.”

“None of your business, this weekend’s my treat. Come on, let’s have fun!”

Troy looked at Abed standing next to the Bluetooth speaker and nodded. Abed nodded back and played the ‘Baywatch’ theme song right away. Everyone laughed and started dancing while getting rid of their clothes to goof around in their bathing suit. When Jeff took his shirt off, Annie tried really hard not staring.

“Oh Lord, when Troy told me to come over, he didn’t mention you would all be dancing around half-naked.” Shirley accused.

“It’s fine Shirley, it’s not like we’re having an orgy or something.” Jeff pointed out, amused by Britta and Abed’s enacting of the slow-motion running scene in ‘Baywatch’. “We’re just forgetting about our daily life for a bit. You can’t argue with the fact that it’s nice, all of us being here.”

“I sure won’t argue with that. But surely, we could have gone without all these horny vibes in the air.”

“These what now??”

“Be careful, Jeffrey.” Shirley warned him, pointing at Annie. “Annie’s a really nice girl, you better keep your hands off of her.”

“What?? Where is that even coming from??” Jeff rebelled, hurt by Shirley’s words.

“I’ve seen your behavior with the female gender over our time at Greendale. You won’t do the same thing to our little Annie.”

“I thought you knew me better than that, Shirley. I would never, in a million years, do anything that would possibly hurt Annie.”

“Well, that’s very humble of you Jeffrey, but unfortunately, you already have.”

“Look Shirley, I know you’re only trying to protect Annie and I respect that but we’re both responsible adults, I think we can handle ourselves just as fine.”

“But that’s just the thing, isn’t it? You two really aren’t able to handle yourselves when it comes to the two of you. Anyway, that’s none of my business…”

“Drop the act Shirley, I know you have an opinion on absolutely anything.”

“I already gave you my opinion. Don’t hurt our little Annie, that’s all I’m asking.”

“Ha, I’ve missed this, you being your judgy old self and guilt-tripping us. We should hang out more!” Jeff sighed sarcastically.

Shirley glared and shook her head to him before leaving his side and going over to Britta and Abed, who were still fooling around. Once Jeff was alone with himself, he took a huge gasp of air before letting it out. He was right, he shouldn’t have come to this reunion. So far, all he did was make a fool of himself, be lectured by practically everyone and, the worst part, turn Annie against himself. He should have stayed home and watched Netflix all day instead of putting himself through that.

Instead of feeling sorry of himself, Jeff decided to let all of it go and without a warning, he dived into the pool and started swimming his thoughts away. He was so focused he didn’t notice Annie couldn’t take her eyes off of him.

“The man truly is a blessing from the gods, isn’t he?”

“Huh?”

Annie came back to Earth when Craig said that. He, too, was eyeing Jeff insistently.

“Hey guys, are you down for a game?” Troy asked.

“What do you have in mind?” Annie replied while everyone focused on Troy.

“Hmm… What about… Marco Polo?!”

“Isn’t that a children’s game?” Chang mocked.

“Are you seriously asking that to people who’ve played paintball and ‘the floor is lava’ at their own college?” Craig sneered.

“When you put it like that…”

“So, everybody’s down?” Troy reiterated.

His friends replied with some “sure”s or some simple head nodding. Everyone noticed how hard Troy worked so that all of them would enjoy their time all together and have a pleasant weekend. Acknowledging that, they couldn’t bear themselves to disappoint him.

“Awesome! Everybody know the rules?” Troy inquired.

“Refresh our memories, I think the last time I played this game was in high school and if I remember it correctly, it ended up being pretty nasty.” Britta giggled.

“Oh you’ll definitely have to tell us about that.” Jeff cackled.

“Please do that when I’m gone.” Shirley implored with a raspy voice.

“Okay, well, the rules.” Troy uttered. “First, we randomly designate a Marco, and then, we’ll all get down in the pool. Our Marco will go at the center and close his eyes, count to ten and during this spare time, the rest of us will scatter around him. When Marco’s reached ten, they’ll search for us, keeping their eyes close. They’re allowed to say ‘Marco’ as much as they want and we’ll have to answer ‘Polo’ so that they can hear where we are and come get us. Once Marco has found you, you become Marco yourself. No one’s allowed to get out of the pool, it’s cheating and if you do, you’re out. The last one standing who hasn’t been caught once by a Marco wins.”

“Great, um, I suggest we involve a price for the winner to spice things up a little.” Jeff then negotiated.

“Cool. What do you have in mind, Jeff?” Abed asked, clearly intrigued.

Jeff had spoken without actually thinking it through beforehand, therefore, he got himself into these types of awkward situations where everyone stared at him, awaiting the answer to Abed’s question.

“I have an idea.”

Jeff raised his eyebrows at once at Annie’s intervention, curious to hear what she had in mind. After what had happened between them the night before, that couldn’t be good…

“The winner gets to choose whoever they want to watch Abed’s movie with them, alone in a car. With no one else inside.”

Jeff had a hard time swallowing when he listened to Annie’s suggestion. He wasn’t a hundred-percent sure but he felt like it was directly pointed at him. He looked around to see if his friends thought about the same thing but they just looked conflicted by this idea. Annie noticed it as well, though.

“And the winner also gets to choose someone to buy them dinner tonight.” Annie added while rolling her eyes.

“Oh I’m good with that!” Chang exclaimed.

“Great idea, Annie!” Britta approved.

“Okay folks, let’s all dive in that blue water!” Troy called out.

They all got into the pool at Troy’s request, except for Shirley, who stood still.

“Aren’t you playing, Shirley?” Britta asked her friend.

“I have a suggestion.” Shirley addressed. “Since I’m not going to be here tonight and therefore won’t really care about this winning price, I can play the first round of Marco so that none of you gets randomly selected and you’ll all have a fair chance of winning.”

“That’s actually a pretty good idea.” Abed agreed. “And then, you can be our impartial referee.”

“Sure, if you’d like that.”

Shirley got into the pool right after and swam right to the center. Fortunately, the water wasn’t too deep so everyone was able to touch the bottom, and most importantly, the size of the pool wasn’t too big, otherwise, the game could have lasted all day.

“Okay Shirley, are you ready?” Troy asked.

Shirley nodded and closed her eyes right after. While she was counting to ten, the rest of the group scattered around the pool with as much discretion as the sound of the water moving allowed. Once she got to nine, everybody was as quiet as a mouse.

“Ten! Here I come!”

The game officially began. It was an endless round of “Marco?”s and “Polo!”s, of water splashing when someone tried to run away from the Marco and of squeaks and giggles. Shirley caught Craig first, who then caught Troy, who caught Britta afterwards, who caught Chang. When Chang began to count to ten, the only ones who hadn’t been caught yet were Abed, Annie and Jeff. The latter looked fiercely at Annie, who was surprisingly extremely focused. And just like that, all of a sudden, he wasn’t thinking about his sex-dream shame anymore. That’s when he decided he wasn’t going to let her win. Since the beginning of the game, he was trying to focus on his moves, and not on how incredibly hot Annie looked in a bathing suit. He couldn’t let himself wander and trying to picture what she would like without any clothes on. He couldn’t lose focus. He _had_ to win.

Jeff started concentrating again when Chang was done counting. He paced as silently as he could towards the opposite direction. Annie was extremely cautious herself. Apparently, she was also determined to win. Abed was like in a fish in the water, swiftly bolting whenever the Marco was near his area. Jeff thought of a way to distract him so that he would be out of the race and he would be the only one standing with Annie. Not only did Jeff want to win this game, but he wanted her to lose at the last second on top of it. He didn’t know where he got that from but his competitive old self was back on track and as committed as ever.

Jeff innocently swam towards Abed and stood close to him. When Chang let out a loud “Marco?”, Abed and Jeff responded “Polo” in one voice, which made Abed turn around to question Jeff. While Chang was going in their direction, Jeff took advantage of that split moment of distraction from Abed to swim away as Chang jumped onto him.

“Gotcha!” Chang bellowed.

“Hey, that’s not fair, Jeff cheated!” Abed argued.

“Shirley, what’s your take on this?” Jeff calmly asked Shirley.

“Well… Jeff didn’t technically cheat Abed, you two were just standing in the same area and he got away faster.”

“But he did that on purpose to distract me!” Abed insisted.

“Sorry Abed, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.” Jeff said.

Abed threw a stink eye at Jeff before moving away, silently conceding he’s lost. Now, Jeff was more exulted than ever. It was down to Annie and him. He glanced at her and observed that she seemed to feel the same way he did.

“Okay, so, if Abed catches Jeff or Annie, the other will be the winner!” Troy announced.

Jeff felt like he was on fire, metaphorically speaking, of course. In his life, he always thrived when he got to win at something. At anything, really. It could just be a stupid bet, like at his former lawyer’s firm, where the winner would be the one getting to the coffee machine first, but even then, victory tasted so delicious in his mouth. He was never getting tired of that sensation and right now, he wanted to feel it again for the first time since a long time ago.

Abed was finally done counting and Jeff was certain he would be merciless as a Marco. He knew Abed would try to recognize his voice in a midst of it all when he would hear the “Polo!”s. He thus had to be more careful than when the others were playing.

“Marco?” Abed asked.

“Polo!” Everyone answered in one voice.

As Jeff had predicted, Abed immediately turned his head towards where his voice was coming from and trotted alarmingly fast in his direction. Jeff avoided him at the last second, which resulted in Abed grunting of frustration. It went on like this for a few minutes, since he was only trying to catch Jeff. Soon enough, the others started to get bored, especially since they had already lost.

“Oh my God, can we get this over with now??” Craig complained.

“Abed, the goal isn’t to catch only Jeff, there’s also Annie left!” Britta pointed out.

“Thanks, Britta.” Annie responded sarcastically.

Abed huffed and focused again on everyone’s voice when he yelled “Marco?”. He followed yet again Jeff’s voice. Except this time, Jeff also pulled out a trick and stood not far from Annie. Abed then caught her at the last minute.

“Nooooo!” Annie cried out.

“Oh. You’re not Jeff.” Abed pointed out when he reopened his eyes.

“You think???” Annie yowled.

“YES!” Jeff raved. “I WON!!”

“Congrats Jeff… I guess.” Troy muttered, surprised by Jeff’s excessive reaction. “I mean… It’s just a kids’ game.”

Everyone shortly got out of the pool to dry and rest on the deckchairs. Basically all of them didn’t care about losing to the Marco Polo game, except for Annie, who was clearly moping around.

“Why was that so important for you to win this stupid game?” Britta asked her quietly. “If you want someone to buy you dinner that bad, I got you girl, whatever makes you happy!”

“It’s not that, I don’t care about the stupid dinner…” Annie sighed. “I just wanted to prove a point.”

“What point?”

Confused, Britta followed Annie’s look, and obviously, it stopped on Jeff, who kept bragging about winning when no one actually cared.

“Ooooh I see.” Britta smiled. “You didn’t actually want to win the game, you wanted to win _against_ him.”

“I know it sounds stupid but… I just… wanted to have control, for once. In… whatever I have with Jeff.”

“Oh but trust me, you do have control and you’re not even aware of it.” Britta scoffed.

“What makes you say that?” Annie asked, intrigued.

Britta quickly realized her mistake as she couldn’t tell the truth to Annie regarding Jeff’s recent “opinions” of her and she thus thought of a way, any way, to fix it.

“I mean… duh doy!” Britta improvised. “It’s just… totally… obvious, you know.”

“I… don’t, but… okay…” Annie frowned.

“But either way, you shouldn’t care so much about that. After all… You have your boyfriend, right?”

Britta felt bad for guilting her friend like that but she actually wanted to see if Annie would tell her the truth regarding her fake boyfriend, if she would trust her with that secret. Unfortunately, she felt rather disappointed when she noticed Annie didn’t disagree with her.

“You’re right, I shouldn’t care.”

“Yeah… Sure…”

“Well well well, looks like it’s time for me to choose my designated movie and dinner partner!” Jeff suddenly exclaimed.

The satisfied look on his face irritated Annie more than she wanted it to. She knew for a fact he wouldn’t choose her, not after all the trouble he put himself through to avoid her this day. He would probably chose Britta, or maybe Abed, to annoy him furthermore with his victory.

“Who’s your victim, Jeff?” Abed asked.

Jeff didn’t answer right away, as if he was trying to build up a suspense. It was more annoying than exciting, though.

“I choose…” Jeff began. “Annie.”


	5. Drive-in cinema and drinking game.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group watches Abed's movie drive-in style. Then, they have a party and play a drinking game.

Annie hastened to get away from everyone’s sight and be on her own for a moment. She didn’t show it through but she was actually pretty upset about Jeff’s choosing her as his movie partner after he won the Marco Polo game. After their argument slash discussion from the night before, she couldn’t possibly imagine how one hour and a half alone-time in a car would go. His revelations were so hurtful to her that she had taken the decision to avoid him as much as possible for the rest of the weekend, and then go back to her life and never think about it again. Obviously, her plans were ruined…

But the truth was, when she suggested the winner should get to choose one person to watch Abed’s movie with them, in fact, she knew deep down it would annoy Jeff and push him to win. Despite him thinking they weren’t right for each other, she knew him too damn well. However, she wanted to tease him with that bet but only so she could be the one to win it and dangle it in front of his face. She would have chosen someone like Troy or Abed to watch the movie alongside her. And she knew how upset Jeff would have been for that. Jeff Winger hated losing, and most of all, he hated not being in control.

Only now, the joke was on her. She got screwed at her own game. And she would have to spend almost two hours alone with Jeff and she didn’t know if she would be able to control herself and not do anything she would deeply regret afterwards. The image of Jeff’s body after that pool time still haunted her mind and she didn’t know how to get rid of it.

“Annie, are you okay?”

Upon hearing her name, she straightened her head to look at Shirley and Britta, who gave her a sympathetic look. She sighed and tapped the pavement beneath her so that her friends would sit down next to her. She was outside in the cool afternoon breeze and she assumed some company would actually be nice at the moment.

“I’m fine.” Annie muttered.

“Look, I know you had a fight with Jeff yesterday so you must be pretty upset that he chose you for this stupid bet.” Britta speculated.

“What were you two arguing about?” Shirley inquired, frowning.

“The same old stuff, Shirley…” Annie answered in a breath.

Indeed, Annie had turned to Shirley to talk about Jeff the last time she had seen him for their first reunion. She felt like talking to someone more “adult” than her, someone who had already experience life and true heartbreak, because she wanted to have an actual opinion on the matter. Obviously, Shirley had her views biased by her religious beliefs regarding Annie and Jeff’s “frivolity” but nevertheless, she advised Annie to stop putting herself through hell when it came to Jeff and move on. She did move on. For a while. But then, she broke up with her boyfriend because deep down, she wanted to be single when she would see Jeff again. She wanted to have her options open. And that fact alone proved that she had, in fact, never actually moved on.

“Yeah, I noticed that something was going on between the two of you.” Shirley admitted. “I have to confess, I talked to Jeff and, well, to sum up, I told him to stay away from you…”

“Wha– Shirley!!” Britta railed. “It wasn’t your place to say that!”

“Well, I’m sorry Britta, but I think Annie has suffered enough for our Jeffrey! She’s young, she has her whole life in front of her and another good man waiting for her at home.”

Annie obviously didn’t have the heart to disagree with that and Britta pretended like she wasn’t aware that Annie should disagree but didn’t.

“First things first, she has her whole life in front of her and period, her happiness doesn’t depend on a man.” Britta addressed. “And secondly, she should be the one speaking for herself, she doesn’t need someone else to do that for her! Shirley, Annie’s not eighteen anymore, she’s a grown woman now.”

“May Annie speak on the Annie matter?” Annie intervened.

Britta and Shirley didn’t pursue their bickering and let Annie the chance to, in fact, speak for herself.

“I appreciate your concern, I really do, you guys are the sweetest and nicest friends I’ve ever had. But… I _am_ actually a grown woman now. And while it was thoughtful of you to try and protect me Shirley, I should be the one speaking to Jeff about it.”

“But sweetie, you have to speak with your brain, not with your heart…”

“I know that. I’m not saying it’ll be easy but… I know I have to put my feelings aside to be reasonable. But don’t worry about that, my whole job is basically about thinking with the statistics and the logics only, so it shouldn’t be that difficult…”

“So… Are you saying that you’re okay spending some time alone with Jeff for the movie?” Britta asked her, obviously concerned.

“Hmm… I guess I am.” Annie asserted with a smile. “We did say some unpleasant things to each other last night but at least, the cat’s out of the bag now and maybe being just the two of us for a moment will help us make things up.”

“I’m sure that’s what Jeff wants too.” Britta smiled.

“Yeah, that and probably something else…” Shirley rattled on.

“Oh come on Shirley, not everything is about sex!” Britta exclaimed, without being able to remain serious.

“Of course it is! You people have always been so nasty, didn’t you all make out with each other at least once??”

The three women started laughing together, reminiscing about their years at Greendale. Annie hadn’t felt that good in a while. She had to admit, despite what was going on with Jeff, this reunion was going even better than she had hoped for regarding her other friends. It certainly made up for the last terrible reunion at Jeff’s apartment.

Eventually, Shirley checked her watch and it was time for her to go back to her nephew’s wedding ceremony. At the same time, the guys got out of the house to prepare for the movie and everyone hugged Shirley goodbye. Once she drove away, Abed, Chang and Craig started hanging the giant linen screen up onto the front wall, before putting the projector in place. In the meantime, Jeff and Troy moved their cars in the appropriate direction to watch the movie. Abed moved his afterwards and finally, everything was set.

“Okay, so who’s pairing up?” Troy asked.

“Can I pair up with you guys?” Britta asked Troy and Abed.

“Of course. Well, that leaves up Craig and Chang since Annie and Jeff already paired up.”

Annie glanced quickly at Jeff only to see his deeply satisfied smile was still sticking up to him. She tried very hard to remember what she had told Shirley and Britta a few minutes ago and held onto it instead of being annoyed.

Troy and Britta got into Troy’s car while Craig and Chang got into Abed’s. Meanwhile, Jeff and Annie got into the car Jeff had rented at the airport. Abed was still outside, in order to put his flash drive into the projector and start the movie. After a few seconds, he caught up with Troy and Britta, and once he was in the car, he finally played the movie.

“I just realized I don’t even know what this movie is about.” Jeff thought out loud when the movie began.

“Yeah… Me neither. I don’t think Abed even mentioned it.” Annie agreed.

“Guess we’ll just discover it, then.”

The movie was already twenty minutes through, and Jeff and Annie hadn’t said a word to each other. It felt like they were both dying to speak but didn’t want to be the one initiating the conversation. That’s usually what happened when two stubborn and proud people crossed paths.

Annie was sitting in the passenger seat and couldn’t stop from tightening and untightening her fingers together. She was so focused on Jeff’s breathing, on Jeff’s movements, on Jeff’s reactions that she wasn’t even actually watching the movie. Sometimes, she would flinch when Jeff laughed. Or her heart would start racing when he would move just a little bit and put his hand closer to where she was. She felt ashamed to admit it but she was actually craving for him to touch her, to acknowledge her, to _want_ her. Maybe Shirley was right after all and everything was about sex with this group of people…

“This movie is so Abed, it’s amazing.” Jeff finally said.

Annie had no idea what the movie was about but she nodded.

“Totally.” She chuckled. “He’s really good at it.”

“He was always destined to do that, after all.”

“Of course. It’s great that he followed his heart and went for what he actually wanted.”

 _Shut up Annie, you’re starting to make this about yourself…_ Jeff didn’t point it out, though, and silence settled down again between them. He had finally made a move, she wouldn’t let this occasion go by.

“Can I ask you something?” Annie suddenly asked.

Jeff finally lost interest in the movie to turn his head towards her. His intense gaze distracted her for a few seconds but she didn’t lose sight of what she wanted to say.

“Sure.” Jeff eventually approved.

“Why did you choose _me_? After what happened last night?”

She noticed Jeff didn’t seem startled by her question. He surely expected her to ask him that eventually. If she knew him too well, like she had thought to herself before, he obviously also knew her too well.

“Precisely because of what happened last night.” Jeff answered.

“But… Couldn’t you just come and talk to me about it instead of fighting me over some stupid game and ‘winning’ me?”

“I… couldn’t come to you before, not with everyone around. Honestly, I didn’t think this through, but when you suggested that the winner would get an alone time with whoever they chose, I saw it as my only shot to be alone with you this weekend. And to be honest, I even thought _you_ did that on purpose to be alone with me.”

“Well… Not… Technically, not exactly…” Annie stammered in a high-pitched voice.

Jeff questioned her by raising his eyebrows and staring more intensely into her eyes. That alone made her shiver.

“I did that because… I kind of maybe wanted to upset you by winning and choosing someone else over you.”

“Huh. Wow Annie, that’s pretty petty.” Jeff gently tittered.

“I know… You see what I’m doing whenever you’re around? I’m ridiculous.”

“No, you’re not. In fact… I kind of deserved it.”

“Oh, you totally deserved it.”

Jeff chuckled and turned away to watch the movie again. Annie felt oddly disappointed he wasn’t looking at her anymore.

“Why are we doing this to each other, Annie?” Jeff sighed, still staring at the screen.

“I don’t know… I hate that we’re being like this.”

“Me too.”

He finally looked at her again, and this time, Annie felt something different. Jeff’s eyes were more intense than before. She desperately wanted to jump onto him and kiss him like she did at the debate in their first year at Greendale. But she couldn’t do that, especially since he thought she had a boyfriend. Right now, she was feeling too embarrassed to tell him she lied.

“I know it’s not my place to say but I think you look really beautiful.”

Annie couldn’t help but blush at Jeff’s confession. And on top of that, she had no idea what had happened in his dreams the night before…

“I– I don’t know what to say.” She admitted, lowering her eyes.

“You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to. I don’t want to put you in an awkward position regarding your boyfriend but… I do think we should be more honest towards each other. So… I had to tell you this because that’s all I’ve been able to think about since I arrived here last night and it’s literally driving me crazy. _You’re_ driving me crazy, Annie.”

Annie believed her heart had never beaten this fast her entire life. Not even when she used to have a drug addiction and was often feeling like she had drunk tons of caffeine at the same time. The things Jeff Winger was able to make her feel just with his words were unbelievable. Now, she wanted more than anything to tell him that there was no boyfriend around the corner, that she could be all his if he just said the right words…

She realized how close their faces were when she felt her phone buzzing on her lap. She flinched and got away from Jeff before anything else could happen. He turned his head to focus on the movie again and she assumed from the length of his sigh that he was undoubtedly disappointed and frustrated she had moved away from him.

She checked her phone right away to make sure it wasn’t an important text from work but it was only a text from Britta. Annie frowned surprisingly and read the text message to figure out what could be so important to her friend she had to text her while being at 300 feet from her.

_“WHAT ARE U DOING??? I thought you were supposed to make UP with him, not make OUT!!!!!!!”_

Annie immediately looked to her right to see Britta, eyes widened, watching her from Troy’s car. Annie rolled hers and typed back an answer.

_“WE WEREN’T MAKING OUT!”_

She then glared disapprovingly at Britta after hitting the “send” button and observed her reaction. She saw her scoffing and typing right away.

_“oh so u were just checking each other’s breath I assume, my bad”_

Annie scowled and started to get upset. She quietly looked at Jeff and he was definitely no longer focused on her anymore.

_“we WERE actually making things up and your impromptus text ruined it!! Now he’s back to ignoring me!”_

Britta was no longer answering after Annie’s last message and the latter was thus checking once in a while in Troy’s car. She felt nervous when she noticed the three of them looked like they were talking intensively and she was pretty sure they were not discussing the movie. She sunk into the passenger seat and crossed her arms onto her chest, the way she’s always been used to do to express her discontent. Why did she have to make up that stupid lie about her boyfriend? The longer she was waiting to tell the truth, the more embarrassing the outcome would be.

After a few minutes that felt like eternity to Annie, she finally heard back from Britta. She jumped onto her phone to check her messages.

_“’im sorry if ive upset you Annie but I just want to protect your feelings, the way you did for me when I asked for your help a few years ago, when you stopped me from reaching out to my ex while he was back in town. Remember how desperate and needy I was back then?? I know u enough to assure that’s not how you want to end up, right?”_

Annie actually remembered what Britta was referring to. Her carny ex-boyfriend, Blade, was in town with his crew in 2012 and Annie had never seen Britta go all nuts like that about a guy before. They literally had to lock her into a room, hide her phone and change his contact’s info so that she wouldn’t reach out and go back to him. Of course, Annie didn’t want to end up in that situation. It would be even more pathetic considering she never actually dated Jeff.

The movie ended sooner than Annie expected and, just like that, the only time she got to be alone with Jeff was over. And she felt more saddened by it than she would have liked.

________

It was now the early evening, as the movie ended around 6 p.m. and everyone got back to their room to mind their own business afterwards. Annie had just taken a shower and was lying on her bed, wrapped up in a towel and staring at the ceiling.

Tonight was the last night the group would all be together before getting back to their normal lives and it might also be the last time they would all reunite, for all they knew. Tomorrow, she would go back to New-York and despite all her good intentions, she was now back to square one with Jeff. They had confessed more things to each other than ever and yet, it was like nothing had changed. She hated that and she hated the fact that they would leave and probably never speak to each other again, because, well, that’s the way things already went before.

Around 8, she got a text message from Troy on the group chat. Dinner was ready and afterwards, they would throw a party “that no one would ever forget, unless you get blackout drunk ha-ha”. Annie sighed. She knew for a fact Abed and Troy had planned some drinking game, because it was a “dope reunion movie banter”. Of course it was dope, when people get drunk, they don’t have any filter anymore and just rant about whatever is going on inside their head! For Annie, it would be a total disaster to do that.

She eventually gathered the courage to get up and figure out what to wear tonight. She decided on a plain dark-blue t-shirt, a black high-waist skirt, black opaque tights, and boots with heels. Her only make-up was a bit of mascara on her eyelashes and a purple lipstick. She checked her outfit in the mirror and self-approved by a nod. Annie had always enjoyed her sense of fashion and it usually helped her feel better about herself whenever she would be upset.

She joined the others in the living-room to have dinner and she was greeted by some music and loud chatters. Everyone was apparently already there, since only her seat was empty.

“Hey Annie!” Troy exclaimed when he noticed her in the doorway. “Wow, you look amazing!”

“Thanks Troy! You all look amazing!”

Annie had already observed that all her friends were dressed to the nines. Obviously, the party-mode was definitely on for the night. She lingered a bit on Jeff’s outfit, who was wearing a fancy white shirt and casual blue jeans. How could the man still manage to look attractive, even when not putting too much effort into it?

She sat down next to Britta and in front of Jeff. She could see he was glancing at her as well. After their almost-kiss in the car earlier, the atmosphere was even tenser than it already was, if that was even possible.

Dinner time was passing by and everyone was undoubtedly having a good time. Troy had ordered sushi and Thai-food, of which everyone feasted, especially Britta since Troy remembered she was a vegetarian and thus got her vegetarian food. To go with the food, Troy had bought some fine wine that everybody was enjoying, maybe a little too much, even.

“Hey Troy, by the way, what even happened to Annie’s boobs?” Britta suddenly exclaimed, laughing uncontrollably.

“Britta??” Annie railed, already a bit tipsy from the wine.

“Not your boobs, Annie! The monkey!” Britta clarified.

“Oooooh riiiiiiight, the monkey!” Annie remembered, making everybody chuckle. “Why did you even name that monkey after my boobs, Troy?”

“Ha-ha, hmm, do… do you actually want me to say it?”

“Hmm…. Yeah?”

Annie was maybe tipsy but that didn’t mean she missed the meaningful looks Troy exchanged with Abed and Jeff.

“Eww you’re the worst!” Annie squealed.

“You pervs!” Britta shouted while throwing a paper towel at each guy. “Weren’t you ashamed of sexualizing your friend’s body like that?”

“We weren’t sexualizing her body! But… I mean… You’ve obviously never looked at Annie’s cleavage and it shows.” Troy shrugged.

“Of course I already have but I respect her and that doesn’t mean…”

Britta hushed right away and covered her mouth, knowing fully well she had made a big mistake saying that.

“Oh my God, Britta, you’re such a hypocrite!” Jeff taunted her.

“Is it wrong if I’m low-key turned on by this?” Troy whispered to Abed, who pursed his lips.

“I’m sorry Annie, I wasn’t sexualizing you or something.” Britta winced. "But it doesn't change the fact that you guys are gross!"

“Okay, you're all obviously already drunk so I’ll try not to be offended by your obsession over my breast.” Annie stated in a light laugh.

She knew they were mostly teasing her and were not being offensive towards her but she couldn’t help being embarrassed. Especially after she noticed how the more Jeff was drinking, the less discreet he was when looking at her.

“Let’s play a drinking game!” Abed suddenly said while getting up.

“Alright, I think that’s my cue to leave.” Craig announced. “Those games never end well and I hold on to my dignity.”

“Me too, I’d rather not play.” Chang confessed, following Craig’s move.

“Why, you have some things to hide?” Jeff scoffed.

“Pff. Nooooo!” Chang answered in a high-pitched voice.

“Right…”

When Craig and Chang said thank you for dinner and left the room, there were only Jeff, Britta, Troy, Annie and Abed left. Britta turned the music louder while everyone was sitting on the ground in a circle. Abed put an unopened bottle of rum in the middle and disposed a cards game face-down around it.

“I don’t think I’ve ever played this one.” Britta thought out loud when she sat down.

“It’s a bit laborious but the rules are fun.” Abed answered, focused on disposing the cards correctly.

“You’re not drinking Abed, are you?” Annie wondered.

“Of course not. I poured myself some soda. Besides, someone must stay sober to make sure everything’s fine.”

“Isn’t the whole point of a drinking game getting everyone drunk?” Jeff pointed out.

“Well, we play by our own rules here.”

“Oh boy…”

Abed proceeded in explaining the rules of this drinking game to his friends, and it took at least a full two minutes for everyone to grasp the concept.

“Abed, the problem isn’t that it’s laborious, it’s that there are a lot of rules to remember!” Annie complained.

“You’ll get to it, and I know them by heart so don’t worry.” Abed assured.

“But there are so many of them!”

“One rule by card, to be precise.”

“And there are thirteen of them multiplied by four!”

“Oh who cares, let’s have fun!” Britta mumbled while chewing Doritos.

“Remember: when you draw a card, you mustn’t break the circle. And when you put it on top of the bottle, the other cards must not fall down. Otherwise, you have to drink the whole bottle by yourself.” Abed reiterated.

“Considering we’re already intoxicated, that should be fun.” Jeff said sarcastically.

The first round would be a “try-out”, as Abed called it, so that everyone could have time to accustom to the rules. Troy started out and drew a four.

“What’s that again?” Troy asked.

“Four to the floor.” Abed answered. “You have to point your finger to the floor while saying four to the floor, the last one saying it drinks one sip of their glass.”

The five of them thus shouted “four to the floor” while putting their arms down, except for Britta.

“Britta, you forgot to put your arm down, drink.” Abed ordered.

“Wh– but Jeff’s the last one who said it!”

“Yeah but I actually listened to the rule, dummy.”

“Ugh, fine, but I was just getting warmed up, prepare for the real competition!”

_______

As the game went by, everyone except Abed was drinking and drinking, to the point where tipsy became legit drunk. Fifteen minutes through and Britta was the thumb master, so each time she would put her thumb somewhere, everyone had to copy her and the last one to react would drink ; Annie had the “snake eyes” card so no one could make eye contact with her, otherwise, they’d drink ; Jeff had the “king of questions” card so basically everyone ignored him when he asked something, otherwise they’d drink, and Troy was the happy “freeze master”, so each time he stopped moving, everyone had to do the same, otherwise… well…they’d drink. Obviously, it was becoming more and more complicated to follow the rules.

“Britta, isn’t it your turn?” Jeff asked.

“Yes but– Damnit, I fell for it again!” Britta hollered before taking a sip.

“We’re almost done guys, there are only a few cards left to draw.” Abed pointed out.

“Good, I’ll probably go throw up after that.” Troy said after burping.

“I drew a nine, that’s the ‘never have I ever’ thing, right?” Britta asked Abed.

“Yep. Normally, only the person who draws it asks something but since we’re almost done, we could each ask something to make the game a little longer.”

“Fine… Hmm… Okay, it’s hard to choose just one question, hold on a few seconds–”

“Just say whatever’s on your mind, Britta.” Troy suggested.

“Yes, hmm… Never have I ever… had sex with a teacher.”

She stared at Jeff while saying that and he took a sip after rolling his eyes.

“Have you decided I’m your scapegoat tonight, Perry?” Jeff grumbled.

“Maybe. Shit, I answered your question. Troy, your turn!” She shouted while taking a sip again.

“Alright. Never have I ever… had sex on the study room table.”

Jeff and Britta both sighed and took a sip while Troy and Abed laughed.

“Can someone give me a break already?” Jeff joked. “Okay, my turn. Never have I ever had to be locked in a room because I couldn’t stop myself from texting an ex.”

“Douchebag…” Britta muttered before taking a sip.

“Annie, your turn.” Abed said.

“Hmm… Never have I ever… had sex in a public place.”

Everyone except Abed drank. Even Annie, which made the rest of them glare at her.

“Annie, when you’re the one saying ‘never have I ever’, the point is not to drink!” Britta recalled before chuckling.

“You need to drink, you’ve looked me in the eyes.” Annie smirked.

“Damnit!!! Anyway, niiiiice Annie, I didn’t think you’d be doing nasty stuff.”

Britta high-fived her without making eye-contact, which made Annie laugh. She didn’t pay attention to Jeff’s reaction, who was both curious and turned-on by Annie’s reveal.

“When was it??” Britta inquired.

“Oh, it was a couple of years ago, I think. I was with my ex– I mean, with my boyfriend.”

“Your ex? I thought you current boyfriend was the only one you had since you moved to New-York?” Jeff mentioned.

Troy exchanged widen-eyes with Britta while Abed pouted. They were obviously heading to the disaster he had tried to warn his friends about but they wouldn’t listen to him so it was too late now…

“Yup. That’s correct. I– I just got confused, I– drank too much.” Annie stammered.

Annie answered Jeff’s question, therefore, she technically had to drink, but the latter was too inquisitive to remember that.

“Sooooo where was it?? How was it?? Tell us more Annie!” Britta asked as a distraction since she saw Jeff’s suspicious look.

“Well… We were at the movies, and… The movie was rather boring so we tried to spice things up a little bit and–”

“What movie was it?” Abed interrupted.

“Hmm… I’m not sure, I– I think it was the Han Solo movie.”

Abed’s eye twitched at Annie’s answer and though he was almost falling asleep, Troy reacted immediately and went to Abed to soothe him.

“She’s probably wrong Abed don’t worry, I’m sure she didn’t mean to disrespect Han Solo like this.”

Annie mumbled a shy “I’m sorry” while Troy tried to reassure him.

“Anyway, we… there weren’t a lot of people there so… Since we were at the back of the movie theater and no one else was around, we… did some… stuff. Sexual stuff, I mean.”

Britta broke into a loud laughter and even Troy and Abed were teasing her for the story she just told. Only Jeff was silent, as he was trying to shove his upcoming jealousy down his throat, and also figure out why Annie had mistaken herself and called her boyfriend “her ex”.

“It’s a good thing I have the snake eyes because I wouldn’t have been able to tell you guys that story while you were looking at me.” Annie confessed, her cheeks blushed.

“You shouldn’t be ashamed Annie, no one is judging you and it’s actually a funny story.” Britta assured.

“Yeah, hilarious story, anyway, I think it’s Abed’s turn.” Jeff bluntly said.

They all rose their eyebrows at Jeff, who looked mopey all of a sudden.

“Sure.” Abed answered, focused. “Never have I ever been in love with someone in this room.”

Despite the fact that they were inebriated and, therefore, boisterous, they all became silent after Abed said those words. Britta had stopped giggling, Troy seemed all woken-up now and Jeff wasn’t sulking anymore.

“Abed… Seriously?” Annie muttered. “Can’t you ask something else?”

“Nope. Sticking to that question. And if I’m correct, all of you should drink. You don’t have to say names, if that’s what’s scaring you.”

None of them was moving a finger, even though Abed was certain he was right.

“Ugh fine, I’m taking the bullet for you guys.” Britta babbled.

She took a sip and knocked her plastic glass on the floor as a statement.

“But I think Abed’s right and I shouldn’t be the only one taking a sip.” She added.

Troy sighed and drank as well, following Britta’s move and knocking his glass on the floor.

“This game is stupid.” Troy said before getting up and running to the bathroom.

Abed was staring at Jeff and Annie, who had lowered their eyes and were slowly spinning their glass into their hand. They apparently had no intention whatsoever to take a sip but Abed relentlessly looked at them, waiting for them to make a move.

“Abed, drop it, I think they’re embarrassed enough as it is–” Britta pointed out.

Annie suddenly rose her head up at Britta’s statement and looked newly determined.

“You know what? I’m not embarrassed.” She declared.

Therefore, she turned her head to look at Jeff, who was still staring at the ground, and she took a loud sip. Britta opened her mouth in surprise and Abed smirked.

Jeff finally rose his head as Annie was putting her glass on the floor and he remained still.

“Are _you_ embarrassed, Jeff?” Annie asked him.

Jeff must have been pretty drunk by then, because he thus engaged in a staring contest with Annie as he also, eventually, took a sip of his glass. Britta mumbled a “dang” while Abed kept smirking.

“I know no embarrassment.” Jeff managed to articulate. “But maybe you should, Annie. You know– considering you have a boyfriend.”

“Nice one Jeff, I’ve hurt your ego so now, you’re hurting mine? Guess we’re even.”

“I don’t give a fuck about being even. I just want you to admit you were dying to kiss me back there in the car, even though you have a stupid boyfriend in New-York.”

“Oh no, you’re not going to get away with this, YOU were the one dying to kiss me, admit it!”

“Yeah! I was, of course I was, and I’m not even ashamed of saying it! You know why?? Because unlike a certain someone, I am single and I don’t have anyone waiting for me at home!”

“Fuck you, Jeff!” Annie exploded. “That’s extremely rude! And… also kind of sad, but mostly rude!”

“Oh my God, can you two SHUT UP already???”

Jeff and Annie stopped their bickering once they heard Troy’s roaring. He was back in the room with them and obviously very upset.

“You guys are acting like fucking children!” Troy bawled. “You’re ridiculous!! This weekend was supposed to be about all of us, about our reunion, and you just kept making EVERYTHING about yourselves! You’re the worst!!”

“So I’m assuming we’re not playing anymore?” Abed interrupted.

“Stop playing innocent, Abed.” Jeff accused him. “You’ve been messing with our heads since we’ve arrived here because you’re tirelessly trying to make a point about your disastrous reunion trope. Well, guess what? You won! This is officially a total disaster!”

“Yeah, thanks to who??” Troy asked sarcastically.

“It’s ‘to whom’, actually…” Britta whispered.

“And you.” Jeff accused in a low-pitched voice while looking at Britta. “You’re the one who guilt-tripped me into going to this reunion and talking to Annie because you’re so narcissistic you always want to be right! You want to be the righteous savior, the mighty Britta that we all worship and can’t live without, the wannabe therapist.”

“You know what?? Fuck you Jeff, I’m tired of helping your insecure ass for nothing!” Britta cried out. “And for what it’s worth, you might try and respect me for once, because I _am_ an actual therapist now!!”

“What??” Everybody exclaimed.

“That’s right.” Britta admitted calmly. “I got my diploma last year and opened a practice with all the money I saved from the bar but since you all loved making fun of me soooo much when I majored in psychology at Greendale, I didn’t even bother telling you that, because you wouldn’t have cared.”

“Britta…” Annie squealed, tears in her eyes. “Of course we care, that’s wonderful news! That was your dream! I’m so proud of you, why would you think we’d make fun of you?”

“Because you always have! Remember?? You even invented a catchphrase with my name for whenever someone ruined something!! Ha! Yeah Troy!! We definitely ‘Britta’d’ your reunion weekend!”

“Okay, I sense a lot of repressed feelings and resentment is coming up from all of us, so maybe we should relax and calmly figure things out together.” Jeff said soothingly.

“Oh shut up Jeff, you’re the one to talk about relaxing when you were panicking over a stupid sex dream you had about Annie.”

“Huh???” Annie squealed.

“Thanks Britta, you must be an awesome therapist, really sticking to the doctor-patient confidentiality.”

“I’m so sorry Jeff, it just– came out–”

“Don’t bother.” Jeff interrupted Britta.

“When did you have a sex dream about me??” Annie questioned.

“Last night.” Abed answered instead of Jeff.

“Wha– I thought you only told _me_ about it!” Britta railed against Jeff.

“I did but Abed planted a camera in your room and he listened to our conversation.”

“WHAT??” Britta hollered.

“To be fair, I had planted cameras in everyone’s room for my reunion movie.” Abed argued.

“What??” Troy howled. “And you didn’t even tell _me_ about this??”

“Nope but I told you about Annie’s secret, though. It was more interesting.”

“Annie’s what now??” Jeff picked up on.

“You told Troy about my secret after I specifically told you not to??” Annie exploded.

“Yep and he slipped up and told everyone else after.” Britta blurted out without thinking.

“I– Sorry, what?! So– Britta? You knew??”

“Sweetie, I’m sorry, Troy made me promise to play along if you talked to me about it, I didn’t want to upset you–” Britta confessed, looking guilty.

“That’s just great.” Annie sarcastically said. “So everyone knew I was lying about having a boyfriend and no one said a thing. I must look like a fool right now.”

“Not everybody knew.”

Annie turned to Jeff when he corrected her and the way he was looking at her made her heart ache in her chest. She couldn’t bear to imagine what he was probably thinking right now.

“Jeff, I–”

“Don’t. I didn’t know you resented me so that you felt you needed to lie about having a boyfriend to keep me away from you… But it’s all clarified now. Don’t worry, I won’t bother you anymore.”

Jeff wasn’t able to look at anyone’s pity face anymore and turned around to go back to his room. Before leaving, he looked at Abed and sighed.

“Congratulations, Abed. Now, the reunion’s a total disaster.” Jeff bitterly told him.

“I never said I would be happy about it.” Abed pointed out.

“Yeah, well… Either way, you were right.”

As Jeff was walking up the stairs, everyone looked so defeated Abed exhaled sharply.

“It definitely feels like we fell into the Darkest Timeline.” He solemnly said.


	6. Making up and adult conversation.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Troy, Jeff, Annie, Abed and Britta have a talk to sort things out. Then, Jeff and Annie talk about their feelings.

The time was not even 11 P.M. but every single person in the mansion was back to their room and stood alone, thinking over and over about what had just happened in the living-room. After Jeff left, the rest of the group didn’t have the heart to keep partying, so they all agreed upon quickly cleaning and going to bed. After all, they would leave the next day and Annie’s flight was in the early afternoon so they had to rest.

Jeff was lying in his bed, arms crossed below his head. He was slowly sobering up but he still felt a little dizzy. He kept playing the moment Annie said she lied about having a boyfriend in his head. Everyone knew except Jeff, which must have meant that she had wanted to keep this from him in particular, it wasn’t hard to understand. When Jeff had jumped to that conclusion earlier, he had felt so unsettled and wretched that he had run away before anyone could have acknowledged it.

_For fuck’s sake, Annie is single and she lied about it!! That must mean you really disgust her…_

Jeff kept on rambling and rambling in his head, self-pitying. What was he expecting, anyway? Even if he had known from the beginning that Annie wasn’t seeing anyone, what would it have changed? He was still in his forties and she was still in her early thirties. The age gap would never disappear and to Jeff, it’ll still be an issue. Annie would waste her life with a guy like him, he was aware of that. He had made his peace with this. Then, why did it have to hurt so much nevertheless?

He came to his senses when he heard his phone buzzing on the night stand. He immediately grabbed it to see if it was Annie – stupid assumption, if she actually wanted to talk to him, she would walk to his room and not text… – but it was the WhatsApp group chat icon that appeared on his screen. That left Jeff puzzled as he unlocked his phone to check the message.

**‘ Troy: Meeting in the living-room. NOW.’**

Jeff frowned at Troy’s message and wondered what he wanted to do. He assumed everyone went to bed after all their inglorious revelations. He put a jacket on and, still in his pajamas, he walked to the living-room. When he entered the room, Troy was already there, also in his pajamas.

“Hey, is everything okay, buddy?” Jeff asked him.

“Actually, no, Jeff. Everything’s not okay. That’s why I asked you guys to come down.”

After Troy said that, Jeff heard footsteps coming their way and suddenly, Britta and Abed were also there, in their pajamas as well.

“What’s going on, Troy?” Britta inquired. “I was starting to sober up, I can’t keep drinking now, I’m not twenty anymore.”

“I think it’s the moment we all reconcile, now that we’ve had our fight.” Abed suggested.

“Not exactly.” Troy refuted. “We’ll make up, I’m sure, but first, we need to get it all out and tell the truth to each other, all of us. Right?”

Britta was nodding when other footsteps approached. Now, it was Annie, also in her pajamas, no need to say.

“Are you okay, Troy? You sounded urgent in your text.” She stated in a yawn.

“Please, guys, let’s sit.”

They all sat around the table. Jeff observed his friends and they all looked like they’d been swiped by a tornado. Britta was right, they weren’t in their twenties anymore and drinking games were no longer their fuel.

“Kay, I’ll start.” Troy declared. “I think we’ve dealt with this reunion the wrong way. I mean, _I_ ’ve dealt with it the wrong way. And don’t argue with me, I stand by what I’m saying.” Troy interrupted when he saw Britta and Annie were about to say something. “I was so excited to see you guys again and I’ve missed Greendale so much that… I guess I wanted to recreate what we had at the time, you know what I’m saying? I know I left for years and I guess I didn’t realize that things would not be the same, that you guys wouldn’t be the same. So, instead of actually catching up and seeing what you’ve all become today, I just focused on games and making this weekend cool. So… I’m sorry for that, and I’d actually want to _really_ hear about how you guys are these days.”

Annie sighed a quiet “aww” as Britta put her hands to her heart, the way she used to do when she was moved. Jeff grinned a little, touched by Troy’s honesty.

“And Britta.” Troy continued while focusing on Britta. “Unlike what you think, I’d really like for you to tell us about your therapist practice. And I’m sure everyone agrees with me.”

Britta watched her friends nod at Troy’s statement and maybe it was the alcohol talking but she felt a tiny tear roll down her cheek.

“Sorry, I’m getting all mushy.” Britta laughed while wiping her tears. “I just… I kept on being dumb-dumb because that’s how you guys have always liked me, or at least, that’s what I’ve always assumed. But if we are really being honest at this table now… I’m not going to lie, my life’s been pretty great since I got my PhD. As I was approaching my forties, I was starting to really question my life and the choices I’ve made. I was still working at a bar, still trying to get a degree, I felt so worthless, you know. And then… I got my license to practice, and I sold my bar shares to afford opening up my own office, and it’s starting to blossom now, I have a few regular patients. And honestly, I feel so… fulfilled since then, you know? Like, I’m finally doing what I’ve been looking for my entire life and it feels so freaking right. Like the tables have finally turned or something.”

Britta was pouring her heart into this talk, so much that Annie started tearing as well and got up to hug her friend. Troy, Abed and Jeff quietly looked at the girls hugging and Jeff felt a warm feeling inside his chest. This whole conversation felt right, like they were supposed to talk their feelings through from the beginning.

“But Troy, you should be the one telling us about what you’ve been up to these last years.” Britta eventually continued while Annie sat back on her chair.

“Oh, you know…” Troy sighed with a thin smile. “Sailing, sailing and stuff. I just… I think it made me grow as a person, to be honest. I saw so many things that I had never seen when I lived in Greendale. Like, I used to be this small town guy who was a football star at his local high school and then, I got to see so much more to life than that. And I feel grateful, truly. But… I was also excited about coming back, finishing the trip around the world, you know? So… Having money is pretty nice, I won’t argue with that but… I kind of miss my old life. That’s also why I wanted to have our reunion in the mansion. Starting Monday, I’m putting it back on the market and I’m going to L.A. to live next to Abed.”

“I thought you hadn’t decided yet.” Jeff pointed out.

“Yeah, well… I make decisions pretty quickly now.” Troy smiled.

“What about you, Abed?” Annie asked. “You never actually talked about your career in Hollywood.”

“Oh, you know.” Abed started in a plain voice. “Movie stars, divas, movie shootings, premieres, parties… The usual. It’s pretty cool but, to be honest, I often felt rather lonely. And I missed Troy so I’m glad he’s moving to L.A.”

“You should have called! I know I was at the other end of the country but if you felt lonely, we could have talked anytime!” Annie assured.

“That’s alright, Annie. It was lonely at first, but then I met Leia and it was easier.”

“Who??” Everyone but Troy exclaimed.

“My girlfriend.” Abed answered, as it was obvious. “We’ve been together for two years now.”

“Two years?? How come you’ve never mentioned her on the group chat?” Britta inquired.

“I assumed you were more interested in memes.” Abed shrugged.

“How did you meet her? How is she??”

“We met on a TV set, when I was working for Paramount. She was a sound checker. We matched rather quickly. When I found out she was named like Princess Leia from Star Wars, it felt obvious to me.”

“That’s awesome Abed, I’m truly happy for you!” Annie squealed.

“Yeah, I’ve met her and Leia is pretty awesome.” Troy said, smiling. “What about you, Annie? What’s life like in New-York?”

Annie paused before answering and couldn’t help but look at Jeff. He was looking at her as well but he quickly looked away, reminiscing endlessly about how she lied to him.

“Well… I’m thriving at my job, although it can be a bit tough sometimes. Most of my co-workers are men and since I’m a younger woman, they don’t always take me seriously. But… I don’t dwell on that and I just keep working my ass off to prove I belong there just as much as they do. And New-York is pretty great. I really like living there, I do, there are sooooo many things to do but… The city is expensive, my rent is a lot, everything is a lot to handle there and… I don’t know. Sometimes, I admit, I miss Greendale a little bit. Well, not necessarily Greendale but… I miss how easy it was back there. I miss… the people.”

Annie crossed eyes with Jeff while saying her last sentence and he felt yet again another warm sensation in his chest. This time, it was more intense than earlier.

“If you all miss Greendale so much, you’re more than welcome to come back, we get bored without you, right Jeff?” Britta kidded.

“Absolutely, it’s even more garbage since you all left.” Jeff asserted.

“You should open up as well, Jeff, especially because there are obviously many things bothering you at the moment.” Abed pointed out.

Jeff took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He sure had a heavy heart and it would feel nice to let everything out. But, as usual, it wasn’t easy to speak honestly. Especially when the woman he shamefully loved was in the room, listening carefully.

“Well… You’ve all been honest, so I guess I owe you that much. This isn’t going to be one of my typical Winger speeches, I apologize for that. Okay, so… The truth? Unlike you guys, I would actually _kill_ to get out of Greendale. I hate my job, I hate the city, I hate my apartment, I hate my life there. And I’m starting to think I’ve slowly started hating myself because of that. And I’m not saying that because I want you guys to feel sorry for me, okay? I’m saying that because a lot of you – well, mostly you, Britta – have noticed that I’ve been feeling down for a while now. I didn’t want to admit it, I kept on lying to myself but… It’s the truth. I am stating it out loud: I am not okay. But it’s alright. And it doesn’t mean I won’t ever be okay. Now that I’ve acknowledged it, I’m going to do whatever I can to feel better, to make things right again. And from now on, I won’t lie to myself anymore. I’ll face my problems, and I’ll face my fears as well.”

Now, it was his turn to stare into Annie’s eyes. He noticed she lightly shivered but from the way she looked, he knew she read between the lines and understood what he meant. What he _truly_ meant.

“Wow, Britta, you actually are a good therapist, it’s a relief to say things out loud.” Jeff eventually teased.

“I’m just going to ignore your sarcasm and thank you for acknowledging my skills.” Britta retorted, smiling.

“Well, I don’t know about you guys but I feel so much better!” Troy suddenly exclaimed. “I’m glad we’ve all been honest to each other. I’m just sorry we didn’t do that right away.”

“It’s okay, Troy. Things happen when they’re meant to.” Jeff assured. “Right, Abed?”

“Totally. While we’re at it, I wanted to apologize to you guys for my behavior. I may have pushed the disaster trope a bit further in order to make it happen, and I shouldn’t have done that.”

“Well, at least, it got us to actually talk to each other, and I think that’s the best thing that could have happened during this reunion weekend, right guys?”

Everyone nodded and as they all got up, Troy asked for a group hug. They all surrounded to embrace each other and in this moment, it did felt like old times and their reunion was finally fulfilled.

“Now why don’t we all go to bed? I drank waaaay too much alcohol to keep a straight face right now.” Troy chuckled. “And I have to be completely sober to drive Annie to the airport tomorrow.”

Annie giggled and after one last quick hug, they all went back to their rooms. Before Jeff walked to his, he crossed eyes one last time with Annie. He didn’t feel completely unburdened, because he still hadn’t told the whole truth to her. And if he didn’t before she left for New-York, he would have missed his chance forever.

_____________

Jeff was about to finally try and get some sleep when he heard a weak knock on his door. His heartbeat raced the second he considered it might be Annie behind that door. He ran to open it and his disappointment showed immediately.

“Oh. Hey Troy.” He sighed.

“Hey, sorry to bother you but I wanted to say thank you.” Troy bluntly said.

“For what?” Jeff asked, surprised.

“Well… Britta told me you were hesitating about coming here in the first place because you felt bad about yourself or something, but you came anyway so… I just wanted to thank you for that. It must have been difficult and I really appreciate your efforts.”

“Wow Troy… You really have grown as a person.” Jeff smiled. “Thank you for thanking me.”

“Thank you for thanking me for thanking y…”

“Okay, let’s not go down that road, it’s almost midnight and I’m exhausted.”

They both laughed and hugged each other before Troy said good night and left to go back to his room. Jeff closed the door and was about to lay down in his bed when he heard knocking again. This time, he was almost certain it was Annie. He reopened the door like a maniac and couldn’t help but sigh.

“What is it?” He asked Britta.

“Jeez, it’s like being greeted by a bear with a sore head.” Britta joked. “I just wanted to check up on you and make sure you were okay.”

“Oh… I really am a jerk sometimes, aren’t I?”

“Weeeeeeell… I would say most of the time, to be fair…”

“Don’t push it, Perry.”

“But seriously though, how are you?”

“I’m good. In fact… I do feel better since we all talked earlier. I think we all needed that.”

“Yeah, I agree. I can’t believe Abed’s dating someone and he never mentioned it!!”

“That doesn’t surprise me much, he’s always been kind of secretive.”

“True… Anyway, glad to know you’re feeling better.”

“Just so you know, I’m sure you’re a terrific therapist, Britta. And I’m really proud of you. If you ever repeat those words to someone, I will strongly deny I said them.”

“Aww thanks Jeff. This conversation stays between us, rest assured. And just so _you_ know, I charge sixty dollars an hour but I can make a friendly price for you.”

“Again, don’t push it.”

They both chuckled and Britta gently rubbed his arm before heading back to her bedroom. This time, he closed the door and when he was finally lying in bed, he heard knocking again.

“Must be Abed now…” He grunted while getting up. “Hey, I appreciate your concerns guys but I actually really need to get some sleep, so –”

He shut himself up when he opened his door and faced Annie.

“H… hi.” Jeff stammered.

“Hi.” Annie shyly answered. “You were obviously not expecting me.”

“Well… Troy and Britta already came a few minutes ago to check up on me, so I assumed Abed would too. And… I wasn’t sure _you_ ’d be coming.”

“To be honest, I wasn’t sure either. But… I feel like we still have so many things to say to each other and I know for a fact I’d regret it my whole life if I were to leave tomorrow with how things are between us right now.”

“Alright, I… Hmm, come on in.”

He stepped aside to let Annie walk into his room and once she did, he closed the door behind her. She stood in the middle of the room, uncertain. Jeff faced her, his hands tucked inside his pockets. The way they were both in their pajamas, standing in this bedroom, felt so mundane and natural it was almost ridiculous.

“I think we should keep up with Troy’s idea and say what’s on our mind, what’s _really_ on our mind.” Annie declared. “All we did this weekend was lie to each other, bicker and not actually listen. I don’t want that anymore.”

“Couldn’t agree more.” Jeff simply retorted.

“Can I sit? I feel a bit nervous, and it’s really awkward, us standing still like this…”

“Of course Annie, let’s sit.” Jeff chuckled, amused by her bluntness.

She softly smiled and walked to the bed to sit on it. Jeff followed her lead and, again, he felt this sort of intimacy between them in such a basic gesture that it disrupted him a little.

“Okay, I… I want to say something first.” Annie stated.

“I’m all ears.” Jeff softly said.

“I know you must be mad at me for lying to you about my relationship status. And maybe you won’t take it and I’d totally deserve it but for what it’s worth, I wanted to tell you I’m truly, deeply sorry. It’s just– I wasn’t going to lie about it, of course, I had already told Troy and Abed I wasn’t with Rick anymore. But… When I saw you again, when we talked to each other for the first time in years and despite all the resentment I had towards you, the things I felt were so intense I immediately freaked out. And I thought that it would be easier for me to pretend to have a boyfriend to avoid any sort of intimacy with you. It’s stupid when I say it out loud, I realize that but… I guess I lied in order to protect myself and my feelings. And I did it without considering _your_ feelings and I’m sincerely sorry for that.”

“I hear you… And it’s not stupid at all. I get where you come from.”

“Of course it’s stupid, Jeff. I acted like a dumb teenage girl.”

“Well… I acted like a dumb teenage boy too.”

Annie smirked at Jeff’s response and he couldn’t help but smile too. In this moment, he realized how amazing it was when you loved someone and how the simple fact of watching them smile meant the whole world to you.

“Anyway…” Annie pursued with a meaningful look. “I hope you’ll forgive me.”

“To be honest, I think I pretty much already forgave you. It’s the doe eyes. Can’t resist them.”

“Disappointing me is like choking The Little Mermaid with a bike chain, right?”

“Sounds familiar…”

“You said that to me years ago. And it was so weirdly said I’ve never forgotten it.”

Jeff felt a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth at this memory of Greendale and afterwards, they stared deeply into each other’s eyes.

“So you had a sex dream about me, huh?” Annie eventually teased.

“Oh God, while we’re at it, I think I should apologize too for that.” Jeff sighed. “It’s really embarrassing.”

“Why would you apologize? It’s not a big deal, I had tons of dreams about you–”

“Oh, have you now, Annie Edison?”

Jeff noticed how Annie blushed right away after her confession and he couldn’t help but tease her just a little. She was giving such major confident and assertive vibes that she was all the more attractive when showing a bit of self-consciousness.

“Hmm, you’re right, it is kind of embarrassing, actually.” She coughed.

“I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours. Then, we will both be embarrassed.” He tried to negotiate.

“Deal.” She approved while shaking his hand. “You start.”

“Are you sure?”

“Trust me, mine are definitely more embarrassing than yours. Shoot.”

“Okay, well… I’m not going to be graphic but… I think we were at a party, and the set sort of looked like Greendale’s cafeteria. And we were dancing and teasing each other and… Eventually, we ended up in a janitor’s closet and we… did what we had to do, I guess.”

“I see… What was I wearing?”

“Does it really matter?”

“Yes Jeff, it does.” Annie joked.

“I’ll have to be straight with you on this one, I can’t remember what you were wearing, I can only remember that you were naked and that’s pretty much all I was able to focus on.”

She blushed again, but she also grinned a little. Jeff noticed the way she grabbed a lock of hair to put it behind her ear and he knew what that simple gesture meant. She was a bit uneasy but mostly flattered.

“Anyway, tell me yours now.” He continued.

“Promise me you won’t laugh.”

“I promise.”

“Pinky swear?”

“Please, don’t make me do that.”

And there they were again, those irresistible doe eyes… Jeff rolled his eyes and locked his auricular to Annie’s.

“I seriously have zero willingness when it comes to you, Annie.” He sighed.

“I was counting on that.” She admitted. “So… My dreams about you were not technically sexual but–”

“Not technically?”

“Yeah, hold that thought. It was more like… romantic, actually.”

“Oh.”

“Remember, you promised you won’t laugh! Besides, I had most of these dreams when we were at Greendale so I was younger, more naïve… I don’t remember all of them, to be honest, but there’s one I specifically remember, because it was very… vivid. It felt so real I felt seriously weird when I woke up.”

“What happened in it?” Jeff asked, his curiosity awakened.

“Well… We were a couple, and… You had decided to surprise me for my birthday and you had planned a whole trip to Disneyland in Paris. So we were there, wandering around the park, eating cotton candy, taking silly pictures… And we were so happy. Like, genuinely happy. It felt so right, you know. And then I woke up and when I realized it was all a dream, I felt so weird. Like I was empty or something.”

“Annie… Wow. How can you expect me to laugh at you after telling me something like this?”

“I don’t know… The thing is I had this dream a few days after we said goodbye when I left for my internship in D.C. We had just parted ways and I still had a dream about us being a couple. I felt ridiculous.”

“You’re not ridiculous.”

Jeff dived into Annie’s gorgeous blue eyes and for a moment, it felt like the world had stopped spinning. He forgot where he was, he forgot they were here with other people. It was like there were only the both of them. And in this moment, nothing else mattered.

“Jeff, I don’t want to leave again and supposedly not see you for a while with the same feeling I had last time. It sucked and I don’t want to feel this way again.” Annie confessed in a whisper.

“Me neither, Annie.”

“Then, tell me the opposite of what you said to me in the study room that night.” She urged him. “Tell me what you really want to say. Not with your head, this time.”

Jeff hadn’t noticed until this moment that they were slowly breaking the distance between them. They were so close to each other he could feel Annie’s breathing inside his neck, he could smell her strawberry shampoo, he could see the perfect curves of her lips… His entire body was calling for hers. He wanted her so in that moment and had wanted her during this entire weekend, thus he could no longer think reasonably and just desired to loosen up and let himself fully go, for once.

“Please.” Annie urged him again, as tension was rising between them.

“Annie, I– you know once I’ve said those words, they can’t be unsaid. Ever.”

“That’s all I’ve asked for since we got here, Jeff. I want full disclosure.”

She was using the lawyering speech to appeal him. It was convenient, yet, it worked too damn well.

“Okay, let’s do this. You know what I would have said that night if I hadn’t spoken with my head?”

Annie simply nodded in encouragement for him to pursue but Jeff saw a tiny sparkle in her eyes. He knew for a fact what was going to happen between them the minute he would have finished speaking.

“I would have said that I didn’t want you to leave. That I would be miserable without you around and would miss you every fucking day. That I’ve tried to shove these feelings down somewhere and stop feeling the way I felt about you, unsuccessfully. That I’ve never felt about anyone like how I’ve felt about you. How I _am_ feeling about you. Annie, I am completely crazy about you and I was never able to stop.”

Annie didn’t give him a chance to finish his speech because she finally closed the last inches left between them to stick her lips to his. This kiss resonated to the one they had five years ago but this time, it wasn’t only soft, gentle and sweet. This time, it was urgent, hungry, voracious.

Jeff grabbed Annie’s waist to lift her up and sit her onto his lap. Their tongues were meddling and their fingers were rushing into each other’s hair. The heat and the tension were so intense that they were both shaking. Jeff had tried for so many years to ignore those feelings that abandoning himself to them was overwhelming.

Annie suddenly stopped the kiss but the spark in her eyes was still there and Jeff sensed a hunger in them that he had never seen before. His instincts proved to be right when he watched Annie take off her shirt. She wasn’t wearing a bra and the mere fact of seeing her topless aroused him intensely.

“Are you sure that’s what you want?” Jeff asked her.

“One hundred percent.” She asserted in a low-pitch voice.

The next thing he knew, she was back to kissing him with strong passion mixed with a bit of tenderness. Annie helped Jeff taking his shirt off and ventured at once to touch his upper body. Feeling her naked body against his was ecstatic to Jeff. He wanted her now more than ever.

He was about to turn her around and lie down on the bed but she took the initiative first and pushed him gently so that he would lie down. She stayed on top of him and he realized how turned on he was by her empowerment over the situation and her confidence.

Jeff reached out to his wallet on the night stand in order to grab the one condom he knew he had in it – in case things got out of hand, you never know, might as well always keep a protection nearby – and once he got it, he put in onto the bed so that it would be quicker to get to once they would need it.

Jeff was surprised, and also very turned on, by how Annie seemed to enjoy foreplay. They had their little fun for a while before they were eventually craving for more. And just like that, finally, they were being one with each other. And it was thrilling, exciting, exulting, all at once. And without having to say a word to each other, they both knew that tonight, they had become real. And for the first time in a long time, Jeff wasn’t afraid or ashamed of himself. He finally felt like things were right.

_____

It was almost 6 A.M. when Jeff suddenly woke up. He saw the sunlight through the curtains beginning to lighten up the room. He stretched up and lowered his eyes to look at Annie. She was cuddling him, her arms wrapped up around him. She was still asleep and she looked so peaceful he hoped he wouldn’t wake her up. He engaged in softly brushing her hair. They were a bit messy from their night together but soft nevertheless.

She eventually moved in her sleep and opened her eyes halfway.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.” Jeff whispered.

“No it’s fine, I would have woken up anyway, I have to pee.” Annie mumbled in a hoarse voice.

Jeff chuckled and watched her getting out of bed and running to the bathroom at the back of the room, wearing only her panties. While she was in there, he sat in his bed and tried to process what had happened only six hours ago. He had sex with Annie, and they spent the night together. They slept into each other’s arms and he had woken up next to her this morning. Therefore, he realized this was the first morning in a long, long time, when he’d woken up feeling happy and eased.

When Annie got back from the bathroom, she jumped onto the bed and got right back under the blankets to cuddle with Jeff.

“Have you slept well?” Jeff asked him as she was resting her head on his chest.

“Very. You?”

“Like a baby.”

“I want to stay like this forever. I don’t want to get out of this bed and go back to New-York…”

Jeff sighed at Annie’s confession and squeezed her a little stronger.

“But we have to get out of this bed eventually.” He later said.

“I know… It’s just… You’ll go back to Greendale, I’ll go back to New-York and we won’t see each other for a long time, we’ll forget about last night and… I don’t want to forget.”

“Who says we have to forget? Do you regret what happened last night?”

“No, absolutely not.” Annie reassured him while sitting on the bed. “It was amazing. But Jeff, you have your life in Greendale, I have mine in New-York and I don’t see our worlds colliding. I’m just trying to be realistic here.”

“Yeah, no, you’re… You’re right. I’m just glad we were able to finally be honest with each other.”

“Me too.”

Jeff was smiling but the simple thought of Annie getting on her flight back to New-York and eventually forgetting about their night together hurt him more than he’d want it to.

“I don’t think I’d ever be able to forget, Annie.”

Annie exhaled sharply and locked eyes with him. He wasn’t sure because of the bad lighting of the room but he thought he saw her eyes wet a little.

“Me neither, actually.” She admitted. “But hey, what we shared last night is special and it only belongs to us. I want to hold on to that memory.”

“I don’t know how I can go back to my boring life in Greendale after that.” Jeff shrugged.

“Your life isn’t boring, Jeff. You have Britta in Greendale, you also have the Dean and Chang in their weird ways I guess, and Troy and Abed are only a couple of hours away by plane.”

“Yeah but the person I want to be with the most lives at the other end of the country.”

“Well… I’m sure that person would jump on a plane anytime without any doubt for you.”

Jeff smiled at Annie and gently stroke her cheek with his thumb.

“I meant it when I said you deserve better than me Annie, but now, all my good resolutions seem to be fading away.”

“I remember what you said, Jeff. You know where I stand on it. I don’t care about your age and I’m sure I’d be the happiest by your side but… You have to truly want that. And then, all you’d have to do was say the right words, or… I don’t know, maybe do a grand romantic gesture, I actually love those.”

Annie chuckled while saying that but quickly gathered herself.

“I don’t want us to become a thing if you’re still feeling insecure about our age gap or if you’re still ashamed of your feelings for me. You know I would love to be with you but only if you’re a hundred percent into it. And… I’m guessing you’re not ready yet so that leaves us right here, right now.”

“Then… Let’s enjoy the moment while it still lasts.”

Jeff grabbed her chin at once to get her closer to him and kiss her. They rolled into the blankets and stayed like this for hours, kissing and cuddling, before finally having the courage to get out of bed around 10 A.M. Annie put her pajamas on again as Jeff was taking his towel to get into the shower.

“Oh God, this is actually my first walk of shame, now that I think of it.” Annie admitted.

“Shouldn’t it be called a stride of pride? I once heard that on a TV show and I think it’s less sexist…”

“Are you actually watching ‘The Bold Type’, Jeff?” Annie giggled.

“Nooooo. Maybe. You know, this show is really empowering.”

“You’re adorable.”

Annie vaguely smiled and she got on her toes to be able to kiss him on his cheek. She then got away from him and exited his room as quietly as possible. She closed the door and turned around to walk back to her room. She didn’t notice Britta hidden in her bedroom doorway, who saw very well how Annie had silently gotten out of Jeff’s room in the same pajamas she had worn before going to bed.

“Unbelievable…” Britta whispered. “Abed must actually be a psychic.”


	7. Decisions and goodbyes.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jeff and Annie say goodbye to each other.

Annie’s flight would depart at exactly 2.35 P.M., therefore, she had to be at the airport at least two hours before. Around noon, she finished packing and went downstairs, dragging her suitcase behind her. Troy and Abed were staying until the next day and the Greendale crew had their flight at 4 P.M. so she was the first and only one to leave San Diego right this moment.

“I’m ready.” She told Troy.

“All set as well. Thank you so much for coming Annie, it was awesome seeing you again.”

“Thanks Troy, it was a great weekend. I hope we’ll be able to meet again soon.”

“I’m sure we will.”

They both smiled and hugged out. Annie quickly said goodbye to Craig and Chang and then hugged Britta and Abed. Jeff hadn’t come down yet and she was starting to wonder if he would come to say goodbye to her or if he would stay hidden in his bedroom. She stared at the stairs for a few seconds, her lips pursed.

“I’m sure he’s going to come down any second, Annie.” Britta told her.

“Yeah… Anyway, I’m going to put my suitcase in your car, Troy.”

Annie started making her way outside when she heard someone rushing downstairs. She immediately turned around and felt relieved when she saw Jeff was finally here.

“Hey, sorry, I lost track of time.” Jeff said, panting.

“It’s fine, I’m still here.” Annie smiled.

They both looked at each other with a soft smile and Britta instantly nudged Troy’s arm.

“What?” Troy whispered.

“Let Jeff take Annie to the airport.” Britta whispered back.

“Why?”

“Because.”

“Hey Troy.” Jeff hailed. “You don’t mind if I’m driving Annie to the airport?”

Britta smirked and exchanged a “told you so” look with Troy. The latter frowned, apparently processing in his head how was Britta able to predict that Jeff would want to drive Annie himself.

“I mean, if Annie’s fine with it, of course.” Jeff added.

“Sure, it’s a… It’s a good idea, Jeff.” Annie stammered. “This way… Troy doesn’t have to make an unnecessary round trip and he can take care of his hosts.”

“Right, totally.” Jeff approved.

Britta snickered at Jeff and Annie’s lame attempt of an excuse to spend more time with each other. Obviously no one was fooled, but regardless, they all pretended to be clueless.

“I mean, if Jeff doesn’t mind doing the round trip himself, I’m fine with it.” Troy eventually shrugged. “But Annie, you have to give me my big goodbye hug right now, then.”

“Duh-doy.”

Annie ran to Troy and hugged him tight. She promised she would call the second she’d be back in her apartment and they also promised to each other they would meet up again in a foreseeable future.

Jeff grabbed Annie’s suitcase and put it in his rented car’s trunk. Annie was embracing her friends once more and she told Britta she’d love to welcome her into her apartment any time soon. She eventually waved them goodbye and sat into the passenger seat next to Jeff. He started driving at once and they exited the mansion’s area rather quickly. It was a thirty minutes-drive to the airport, so they’d get there soon but Annie wanted to enjoy this small amount of time she had left with Jeff.

“Can I say something rather silly?” She asked.

“Please, be my guest.” Jeff joked.

“It really feels marriage material, you driving me to the airport. I know it’s silly but…”

“I was actually thinking the same thing.”

Annie turned her head to look at Jeff, eyes hidden behind his sunglasses and all focused on his driving. She searched for an ounce of irony but he actually looked serious.

“So… Why were you so eager to drive me to the airport?” Annie wondered out loud.

“I guess I wanted to spend more time with you. Alone, I mean.” Jeff shrugged.

“You could spend all the alone time you’d like with me, you know. I mean, if you’d be interested in coming to New-York sometime… We’d have my apartment to ourselves. It would be nice, I think.”

“Annie, I… I think our conversation this morning was pretty clear. You said it yourself, our worlds can’t collide.”

“I know I said that but… We could still see each other casually, from time to time. You’d visit me in New-York, I’d visit you in Greendale. It’s a valid option.”

“It’s definitely a valid option but I know for a fact that’s not what you really want. Am I wrong?”

She remained silent at Jeff’s statement and sighed. Of course he wasn’t wrong. She didn’t want “casual” with Jeff. She wanted the whole package, the full-time commitment and the real relationship.

“You’re reasoning like this because you’re already feeling nostalgic but don’t worry, the minute you’ll be back in New-York, back in your apartment and your work, life will get back to normal and you won’t think about it anymore.”

“Yeah… Maybe you’re right.”

She conceded because she didn’t have the heart to argue with him at the moment but she actually wanted to yell at him, to tell him to fight for them, to take a stand and to find a solution so that things could work out between them. Why wasn’t he doing any of that and just taking the easy way out? She felt so frustrated all of a sudden she didn’t try to engage in another conversation and just looked outside her window for the rest of the ride.

They arrived at the airport in a blink of an eye and Jeff parked near Annie’s terminal. He took her suitcase out of the trunk and walked with her to the departure zone. At some point, he wasn’t allowed to accompany her anymore so they stood in the middle of the room, people running and brushing them all around.

“So… I guess this is goodbye, now.” Annie observed.

“Yeah… I have major _déjà-vu_ vibes.”

“From five years ago, I know. But things are actually a bit different this time, right?”

“Everything is different now.”

Annie felt a sudden urge to cry inside her and tried to repress it as hard as she could. She didn’t want to leave, she wanted to stay by Jeff’s side and it hurt so much to say goodbye again to him. It was like it had become a sort of habit now and she hated that.

“We should have stuck to saying goodbye at the mansion with the others, this is too painful now.” Annie managed to point out.

“It literally kills me to leave you here after what happened last night, Annie…”

“Then, don’t. Come with me.”

“Annie, I know we’re both feeling sad but we can’t allow ourselves to daydream like th…”

“I’m serious, Jeff.” She interrupted while taking his hand. “We could make it work. We don’t have to necessarily stay in New-York, we could pick a city we both like, and find new jobs there, and a nice suburban house… I know it's cliché and cheesy but I would live any kind of life if it meant being by your side.”

Annie felt Jeff’s hand trembling in hers. He tried not showing it but he was obviously very shaken by everything she said. She knew in her heart he wanted to say “fuck, let’s do it” and follow her anywhere but he forced himself to be reluctant because even though he wanted his life to turn around, he wasn’t no less scared of this perspective.

“Just… Think about it, okay?” Annie continued to soothe him. “I’m not expecting you to make such a spontaneous decision right now, I realize it’s crazy. But just think about it, please. And whenever you’re ready… You know where to find me.”

She got on her toes to be able to reach his face, since he was way taller than her. She placed a gentle kiss on his lips and felt her heart warming up when he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her back. She eventually parted from him when she heard the airport’s speakers calling for New-York’s 2.35 P.M. passengers to check-in. Jeff softly stroke her hair and Annie’s heart shattered just a little bit more.

“I love you, Jeff.”

It was the first time she was saying it out loud but in this moment, she was no longer afraid of admitting it directly. She wanted him to know that. She didn’t wait for him to say it back and simply smiled before turning around and walking into the departure zone. She tried this classic rom-com trope and waited to be a little bit further to turn around and see if he was still looking at her. She turned back immediately when she noticed he wasn’t even here anymore and had already left.

_________

Two months had passed since Troy’s reunion and the new group chat was still as lively as when Troy created it. The group all shared occasional memes and talked about their daily life. The weekend they spent together was a real breakthrough and got them to actually reconnect with each other.

There was still a dark spot on the picture, though. Jeff hadn’t called Annie since she had gotten back to New-York and she eventually came to terms with the fact that he probably chickened out for good. And even though she knew it was a bad idea, she had allowed herself to hope he would come to her. And yet again, she had hoped for nothing and had been disenchanted by Jeff Winger.

On a dull Friday afternoon, she left work when nightfall began to appear. She got herself a cup of tea to go at the downstairs’ cafeteria and left the building to hop on the subway. She was about to walk down the stairs to get to the subway when she thought she saw a familiar face nearby. She looked up and immediately turned around to go back up. She ran as fast as she could with a hot cup of tea in her hands and her workbag dangling on her hip but she managed to get to the person quickly.

“Wh– What are you doing here?” She exclaimed, breathless. “Am I dreaming? Is it a stupid dream again?”

“No Annie, I’m really here.”

Annie shivered at the sound of Jeff’s voice. She tried really hard not to pinch her arm to check if it wasn’t actually a dream.

“How did you know where I work?”

“I asked Britta. She helped me plan the whole thing, actually.”

“I don’t understand… What’s going on?”

“You said you wanted a big romantic gesture, right? Well… I can’t promise I’m going to nail it but I’m going to try anyway.”

He stepped closer to her and took her hand in his, intertwining their fingers.

“I want all in, Annie.” Jeff confessed bluntly. “Just say the word and I’ll quit my job at Greendale and move out of my apartment. If your offer from two months ago still stands, let’s do it. Let’s give us a shot.”

“Wow, I… I was certainly not expecting this when I left for work this morning…” Annie sighed, speechless.

“I totally understand if that ship has sailed and you don’t want me anymore. But I had to come here and try either way. I’ve been miserable since I came back to Greendale and I’m tired of running away. Fuck my insecurities, I want to be with you and at the end of the day, that’s all that matters.”

“Are you sure that’s what you want, Jeff? I told you, I don’t want to do this unless you’re a hundred percent on board with it…”

“I love you, Annie. I am one thousand percent on board.”

Annie opened her mouth in shock at Jeff’s confession. Now more than ever, she felt the need to pinch her arm.

“If I am actually dreaming right now, I’ll cry my eyes out when I wake up, I swear.” Annie chuckled, shaking.

“It’s all happening for real, I promise.” Jeff smiled. “I love you and I don’t want to spend another minute away from you anymore.”

“Alright… I hear you. Do you have a place to stay in the city?” Annie teased.

“Well, I have a few calls I can make.” Jeff played along.

Annie laughed and hugged him right away. In doing so, she dropped her teacup to the floor and shrieked in surprise.

“Shit, of all the moments to be clumsy…” She grumbled.

“Let me buy you a coffee for the inconvenience.” Jeff offered while picking up the empty cup from the ground and tossing it into the nearest trash.

“It’s a bit late for coffee, I won’t be able to sleep tonight if I drink one right now… Why don’t you buy me a drink?”

“Sure, as long as you don’t make me order Appletini…”

They smiled at each other and started walking, hand in hand. Annie waited for Jeff to look up to the impressive New-Yorker skyscrapers to secretly pinch her arm but he knew her so well she couldn’t fool him.

“I know you just pinched your arm, Annie.”

“Sorry but I had to! It sounds too good to be true!”

“I’m sorry it took me that long to come around…” Jeff whispered. “I did what you said and I thought it through. Maybe a little too much. And it took me a while, I know that. I was afraid of making that jump. But I promise I’ll make up for all the time we lost. I promise it’ll be worth it.”

“I have absolutely no doubt it will, Jeff. I know we’re going to be amazing together. I can feel it.”

Annie enjoyed watching Jeff smile at her certainty because she knew he liked her optimism and her good spirits, even though he will never admit it. She felt so much joy when she realized she was walking the streets of New-York, hand in hand with the man she’s always loved, both of them ready to start a new life together. Finally.

“So, how was your day?” Jeff eventually asked, putting his arm around Annie’s shoulders.

“Fine, a bit exhausting. I am longing for that delicious Appletini you’re going to order for me at the bar.” Annie giggled.

“Oh my God, you are a real villain, Annie Edison.” Jeff laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Voilà!
> 
> It's not one of my favorite writings but it's actually the first English fic I've written so that's one thing I can be proud about, at least. I hope you enjoyed reading it. It's my idealized season 7/movie scenario here, I know it'll never happen for real but it was nice and fun to plan out.
> 
> See you around for another fic and thanks for reading up until then!


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